0:04

i’m just gonna wait until some people pop up

0:18

hi everyone uh we’re going to start in a couple minutes our curator’s tour of art of reflection

0:25

with robin taylor my name is michael manson i am the public programs and outreach coordinator

0:30

here at the art gallery of alberta and we’re so pleased to have robin come and talk to us

0:36

robin is also in programming they’re the programming coordinator of yg the come up at the africa center and

0:44

sorry we just had a technical glitch i’m just gonna uh get robin on the call and then we’ll

0:50

start the tour thank you so much for joining us

0:56

hi everyone so like um was mentioned my name is robin and i am the program coordinator

1:02

for the watford the art gallery of alberta respectfully acknowledges that we are located on

1:08

treaty’s expiratory the traditional land of diverse indigenous peoples including the cree mitsusapi

1:16

blackfoot metis iroquois ojibwe soto and in anishinaabe

1:23

we also acknowledge all of the indigenous inuit and metis peoples who make alberta their home today so

1:30

thank you so much for the opportunity i’m really excited to show you um the

1:36

exhibition that we’ve been working on this entire time so why do they come up for a youth program

1:41

under the africa center and our goal is to empower black youth in edmonton we’re composed of black youth volunteers

1:48

who work in different sectors of community to create initiatives meant for empowerment education

1:54

etc so we have task forces and our arts and culture task force was a task force

2:00

that was responsible for curating the art of reflection since we’re in a pandemic

2:05

when we’re thinking about what our theme could be for the art of reflection we were just thinking that you know even

2:11

though we’re in a pandemic and things are hectic uh we really have a time to like kind of step back

2:16

and reflect and maybe see how you know the learnings from that reflection can shape how we move and move the future so

2:24

that’s what we asked our artists we asked um the theme is going to be the art of reflection and we really just want to see like how

2:30

your sense of self and your sense of reflection throughout the pandemic will shape how you create art and also

2:36

how you move um in the space and this is what we have but i’m so excited to show you um it was interesting because this is

2:43

the first time we’ve done an exhibition virtually so this is actually my first time seeing all of the

2:49

pieces and it’s really really great to um i guess share this with you so first we’re going to start here

2:56

this is kind of the first wall in the corner and um this is from matcha abdallah mata

3:01

is an artist from edmonton she’s romney’s base though and she creates acrylic uh she creates art through athletic on canvas

3:09

um the names of these pieces are midnight blues on the left and forward on the right and essentially

3:15

they’re capturing these two people at different stages in their life one is kind of lamenting on

3:21

you know life’s transgressions and the hardships that you can face and another thing is like celebrating and looking forward um

3:27

you know into the future both are um tied to you know deep thoughts of spirituality so much she

3:34

kind of uses that um her religion and also her just like spiritual themes to kind of connect these two pieces

3:40

and i really really love the blues in them so personal favorite even though i’m not supposed to have favorites so

3:47

i’ll take you to the front here and this is kind of where the exhibition

3:52

starts it came through this main entrance and we also have another one who’s um

3:57

artist named elisa elisa and she also has two pieces that kind of

4:04

reflect um you know different places in the subject slides um lisa really

4:13

works with portraits and something that’s really cool about her work is that she she typically does like black and white

4:18

portraits that have like a vibrant colored backdrop so this piece is called

4:23

um testimony no this piece is called rest and this piece is called testimony which i thought was really

4:29

great and i love the the meaning behind rest um essentially it talks about the fact that you know

4:35

even though we’re in a pandemic especially in 2020 there’s almost no time to rest which is

4:41

kind of crazy even though we’re all at home so i really resonated with that piece and i hope that when you come

4:47

uh you can read more in the description and hear more about her her thoughts um next we have lady in the

4:53

water by shaheen small and something that i love about this piece and not just the fact that it’s graphite on paper

4:59

but also the frame like maybe that’s a small thing but i really feel like the frame kind of puts

5:04

together the entire piece um and i love how his piece was just inspired by a

5:10

mysterious figure in the mire of his consciousness which i think is really really cool shaheen is also an artist that’s always

5:16

been um that’s frequently featured in the five artists one love art gallery showcase and five

5:22

artists one love was actually the organization that allowed us to have this opportunity with the art gallery of alberta

5:27

so we’ll always be grateful to them and yeah shakeem he was a really he’s a really great artist as well

5:33

so if we keep going we have the central wall which features

5:39

some photographers in edmonton so this piece this photo series is from

5:44

alia logan who is a photographer here in edmonton and she’s amazing her piece is all about

5:52

community and the idea that you know a lot of the times community isn’t just you know through who’s your biological

5:58

sister or brother that kind of thing it really comes to the people it really comes from the people that you connect with

6:03

um and so she like kind of puts different um pieces of how community i guess can be

6:11

reflected um through either friendship through relationships through camaraderie um and how sometimes we’re even

6:17

connected through you know our struggles and our traumas so that’s what i really love about aliyah’s work and i’m so happy about

6:24

how it came out it’s wonderful um then we have another piece

6:32

by precious k um it’s kind of a bigger piece it’s called pronounced non-conformity

6:38

and this piece is about um precious reflection on gender you know and how our world is so

6:45

gendered to the point where it’s like it doesn’t even make sense anymore you know so she talks about like you know this idea

6:52

and this concept of how gender is this construct that really boxes us all in and this piece is kind of her way i

6:59

guess of breaking out of that and breaking out of that mold and exploring that concept further so yeah i really invite you to read her

7:05

description for the description for um this piece because i think uh we can all kind of learn a few things

7:11

from it um next we have gallican who is another photographer

7:17

so we kind of tried to frame this gallery with three a photo series on the left and

7:24

right of precious piece so this is another set of three and gallican’s name is actually kind of

7:30

cool so the set is addressing my pain to create progress in my passion

7:36

and you know gal can he really took the art of reflection theme i guess really personally or internally

7:41

and and figured out how you know in a way this in his description he talks about how the

7:47

pandemic kind of took away his ability to practice photography right you’re not really able to

7:52

book those sessions with people anymore and have that connection so when he talks about addressing his

7:58

pain to create progress in his passion he kind of took it upon himself to step out of

8:03

his comfort zone and actually do a session with himself and through that

8:08

session he learned like just so much about i guess it renewed his love with photography and he got to see his art in

8:14

a different way and that came directly from being in the pandemic so yeah this is like his first time i guess

8:20

in in front of the camera in this way and i think that the results were actually pretty amazing

8:28

okay so here we have some more pieces for this wall we kind of have like a smaller set of

8:34

pieces or smaller sizes of pieces that we can’t to play around with that a little bit so this is from oh we’re down there but

8:42

that’s okay this is from casey coffee and his piece is really just all about

8:47

seeing i guess yourself in his art he really thought about this when it comes to when it comes to like you know

8:54

black men and how how we move through the world and his hope and anticipation was that

8:59

when you’re looking at his peace you’re also able to see some of yourself in it or you’re also able to connect with some

9:05

of the emotions that he’s putting through that art so it’s called slow down and stare and i think that’s a really accident

9:11

um lisa’s piece is called daydreamer and i love it because it’s just so

9:17

whimsical it really is supposed to capture like how she viewed the world you know daydreaming and seeing it you know full

9:24

of possibility and full of hope and full of vision and i really feel as if you can get that whimsical vibe

9:29

with lisa’s piece she’s also a tcu member a budding artist as well so it was really great to see her work um

9:36

in this gallery um we’re almost done we have jade dante’s pieces

9:41

next which i think are just so cool he does um acrylic on canvas with um

9:48

collage and his whole concept and way of creating art is to really like deconstruct the human body

9:55

while also using like these really intense vibrant colors so if you look like at

10:00

the forehead here i think it’s so cool there’s like a finger sticking out of the forehead which i think is really interesting

10:06

but yeah like it’s a really great piece and the idea is it’s called something

10:11

beautiful this piece is called something beautiful and the idea is that you know in the midst of darkness we can still always

10:16

find hope or we can still always find something beautiful in our experiences and i think that’s a really apt

10:22

um way to connect to the reflection and and you know a way to view how we’re living in the

10:28

context um the last two are from flexum t this is called

10:33

quite but he’s really interesting he’s born in eritrea and he’s

10:38

featured all around the world when it comes to his work he typically does charcoal on paper

10:43

and he uses his art as a way to express emotion especially when he’s not able to if that

10:49

makes sense so yeah i thought it was really cool and i think if you look at his description you’ll learn a lot more about him and

10:54

his experiences as well as this piece and finally we have a piece by genesis who’s

11:02

actually another tcu member it’s called it is what it is and it kind of reflected their um

11:09

i guess sense of hopelessness during the pandemic too just seeing everything that’s going on and also

11:14

connecting with their friends and see feeling really really helpless you know and and actually kind of just going to a piece of resignation or

11:21

a feeling of resignation when it comes to how we’re going to move in the pandemic and and i really thought that it’s

11:27

interesting how she contrasts that black and white with that color to kind of understand like to kind of

11:32

show like her i guess feeling of resign resignation with everything that’s going on um but yeah

11:40

that is actually the end of our exhibition hopefully the end of the two are roughly there

11:45

but we do have like a little bit of a bonus if you go here to the side

11:52

so like i said tcu a program under the africa center so the africa center is a

11:58

nonprofit that actually has a lot of different programs one of them is the artemo project which focuses on mental health for black youth

12:04

and black communities so these pieces come from a workshop that the african center did where they

12:11

were trying to equip kids and families with the tools that they could use to actually benefit

12:17

and um promote their mental health during the pandemic so each kind of did these pieces that

12:22

had it was almost like a self-portrait but they also tried to um include affirmations and learning

12:29

about what affirmations look like and include that in their pieces so that they can kind of i guess hold on to that

12:34

and remember that while they’re going through the pandemic so you’ll see words like you know kind family

12:40

music just these things that you know kind of keep people’s moods up during the pandemic and yeah i

12:46

think it was great you’ll also see some poetry that’s been written i think actually

12:52

um that’s written we have one that’s called corona please stop i feel like a lot of us kind of feel

12:58

that way but yeah this is a rock that was created um during their workshop too which i think when you read the lyrics a lot

13:05

of us can really um vibe with them so yeah that is the exhibition that’s what the art of

13:13

perfection looks like i really invite you all to come down when you can and to look at the pieces because i feel like images don’t even do

13:20

them justice but i think we’re going to go and we’re going to chat a little bit more about the pieces and we’re also going to talk

13:26

a little bit to the artists who created some of the work so while we’re

13:31

heading there

13:47

we have something requested you can see some requests and we have uh someone requested to join

13:52

the video okay oh thank you okay so

13:58

we actually have some people on that we’re gonna invite um to go live so when we came to the

14:07

um there we go do you like to come up

14:14

oh no they can’t join oh dear

14:22

so we do have one person coming on that i just want to invite but i can’t invite them right now um

14:30

hopefully we can get belinda on belinda is one of our tcu members um

14:36

when we created the exhibit it wasn’t just me as a curator we had other members there as well and belinda she

14:41

was also the lead curator so we want to invite her on to hear like her experiences and concepts that she

14:48

interwoven in the she put in the piece but i’m not sure how to add her on

14:54

melinda are you here can you wave or type it in the chat or if anyone has

15:00

any questions while we try to get her on this would be a good time maybe i didn’t explain anything

15:06

something as well or you want to hear more

15:19

no okay so i it looks like we oh belinda is here okay awesome i just

15:24

don’t know how to get you on

15:33

oh it says you’re unable to join

15:41

yeah so you have to request to join on to the live

15:48

yeah or maybe we can try later okay but i there’s no option for her to

15:54

request hmm okay

16:01

but this where someone has a question was this for black history month what’s the exhibition called yeah so the goal was to have it

16:07

exhibited through black history month but unfortunately due to the pandemic um we weren’t able

16:13

to um we weren’t able to open during that time but it was supposed to also extend

16:19

throughout black history month so hopefully when we when the restrictions ease um we can

16:24

come back and and still celebrate with the work but that’s okay i don’t think we’re able

16:31

to talk to belinda at this time uh belinda if you’re able to maybe like come back on um

16:38

and request that would be great but if not that’s all good i think we can still go and talk to some of the artists here i

16:44

see a bunch of them which is cool is galakin here

17:03

okay let’s talk to gallican gala can you can request to join

17:11

yeah just request to join the line and we can chat a little bit about your work

17:25

okay i think you just have to request okay there we go

17:36

i’m accepting your request thank you guys for being so patient with us

17:42

how are you i’m good wait you can’t see me here i am hey how are you how are you

17:50

i’m good i’m glad you were able to join we wanted to talk to you a little bit about your pieces for the art of

17:55

reflection i don’t know if you heard my description hopefully i did it just absolutely yeah you got it right um you nailed it yes okay

18:03

awesome well grace if you want to introduce yourself and you know tell the people who you are and the kind of art you do

18:09

uh yeah so my name is gali kanbuki i am a edmonton edmonton-based photographer

18:14

i’d say i focus a lot on events uh portrait photography and now i’m starting to do real estate

18:19

but ultimately it’s all about capturing emotions and yeah essentially people’s emotions

18:26

in the moment so whether it’s events through connectional or working

18:31

with various businesses that are trying to brand themselves or even like portrait

18:37

photography and like kind of fashion to kind of portray like a specific emotion that they are um doing in them

18:45

today yeah well thank you so much for that i see your work all the time especially with lack of mixing

18:50

and i love it of course but do you want to talk about like your pieces and how you felt about the exhibit and

18:57

the theme like how you connected to it yeah it was honestly uh really tough because i’m a perfectionist but

19:04

to see um like the theme being um like reflection art of reflection i

19:10

definitely had to reflect even before uh submitting those photos and ironically i had um like you said i

19:17

had recently gotten a backdrop and a uh like a studio and then i wanted to become the model the photographer and

19:24

everything and like you said it was kind of like the first time that i was actually like the model and it was

19:30

definitely stepping out of my comfort zone um but this or this theme definitely pushed me just

19:36

because i’m not much to be in front of the camera or let alone show a sense of vulnerability because it

19:41

is very vulnerable to be in front of a camera and just kind of put everything um in front of you and yeah as you described

19:48

kovit had really affected me um unfortunately i was i tested positive for covid so even there

19:53

that was rough but to see just like the support from my friends um was truly amazing but i was able to

19:59

just put all those all the changes that were happening in my life from moving out from almost like graduating and unfortunately

20:06

being tested positive for covid um but also even going through therapy and just being able to show my

20:12

vulnerability and to learn how to process my emotion and i love that about photography that

20:18

you can just kind of put everything and just portray your emotions

20:23

in so many different ways and that’s kind of what happened and yeah just was very vulnerable and showed

20:28

my weakness and like all as you can tell i look kind of tired so there’s a little fatigue and yeah so that’s kind of just like what

20:35

inspired me to do it but it also took a lot for me to submit it because i was like i don’t think that i want my face

20:41

to be plastered all over the art gallery for everyone to see like most artists are usually taking photos of

20:48

other people or portraying other people but to portray myself was definitely one step ahead so yeah yeah thank you so much for

20:55

sharing that first off i’m so sorry that happened to you during the pandemic but um i the thing i love about your set

21:01

is that i think you can really the emotion really speaks through like you can really see the sense of vulnerability and you can

21:07

really see the sense of reflection you can really see you know in a way like you you do look lost because that makes sense but it’s

21:14

interesting to see like how you were vulnerable with that and i think with your description and how you talk about

21:20

you know how that led to these pieces i think a lot of people can connect with that it’s crazy like we’re in a pandemic like

21:26

these things are gonna happen like it’s not easy but i feel like we’re still like no we have to be a perfectionist we have to

21:33

do this we have to complete that and it’s it’s nice that you showed that other side the side that i think a lot

21:39

of people can actually resonate with um during this time so thank you so much for sharing that

21:44

um it’s always cool to see like how you i guess split the rules right um it’s

21:49

interesting when you hear about how photographers are in front of the camera they’re like i’m not used to this exactly so i can

21:56

caring uh because i started the uh i guess self-portrait kind of series and to just like kind of make the jokes

22:02

that you’re your own like uh like you’re the creative director you’re your own um

22:08

it’s called makeup artist and all that stuff so but there’s just so much work that goes into it and also like you said uh gave me a

22:14

new i fell in love with photography again in a more profound way just to see that how all the pieces come in together and

22:22

also i guess going back to being a perfectionist one of the photos actually came about blurry but it i don’t know i felt like

22:28

it was kind of artistic or i just like i loved it even more because it was out of focus just because like you said i was kind of like

22:35

lost i didn’t necessarily know where i was going or what was going to happen and that just the addition of it being um out of focus

22:42

just definitely showed that in an even more profound way so yeah yeah okay i have one last question do

22:49

you think that like with this experience you’d probably like is there anything you’re gonna change about how you do photography like when

22:56

we’re back into the like when we’re able to have those sessions again like do you think that that experience has influenced how

23:01

you’re gonna be doing photography moving forward yeah i think one

23:06

all step out of my comfort zone whether it’s working with new clients or even trying

23:12

different concepts but also being in front of the camera and even trying more uh self-portraits but at the end of

23:18

the day i think it’s definitely connecting even more with the people that i work with because at the end of the day i always view them as not only clients but also

23:26

friends and it’s all it’s also just been so amazing to grow with these individuals that you just met on the internet it’s

23:32

like hey i love your work it’s like i would love to work for you um but yeah just essentially just like stepping more and more out of my comfort

23:37

zone trying different concepts and also allowing myself to um put the work

23:43

out there that i don’t think is perfect because similar to this perfect i thought there lost to it but

23:50

to put myself out there to be vulnerable and to share my work of art and to see how it resonated with so much

23:55

people was just it was so powerful so i think that’s definitely one thing i’ll be taking um from this experience wow thank you so

24:03

much i feel like i’m learning and i’m nowhere near artistic it’s so cool to hear that thank you so

24:08

much you can tell people where they can find you or if you can see like more of your work um yeah so as my

24:15

handle says yeah my instagram handles bookievisuals so ai visuals and i also have a website called

24:22

visual.com oh no okay at vp visuals

24:30

beautyvigils.com for you to see more the work that golicon does and when you come down to the art of reflection in

24:36

the art gallery um we were able to definitely check out his pieces i think you’ll definitely see um some cool stuff um so

24:44

is i think we’re getting some more requests we can talk to belinda

24:56

can you hear me hey sorry about that technical difficulty

25:02

how are you me i honestly technology is not my thing but i’m good how are you

25:09

pretty good like we’re talking about the curation and i’m like oh my goodness i wish belinda was here to talk about her experiences

25:14

so now that you’re here i’ll introduce you um belinda she’s our arts and culture

25:19

task force lead and she played a huge role in like curating this exhibition and placing the pieces where

25:26

there are and helping with selecting the piece i just want you to talk about like your own connection with the exhibition

25:32

like what your favorite parts curating were all that good stuff well it was a collaborative effort of

25:39

course like tcu is um like i work within the task force that’s

25:46

arts and culture and i lead it but there are other members who helped me to establish this exhibition and it was

25:53

just a really nice experience i actually the theme of reflection wasn’t my first

25:59

choice it was like voted i was voted like i was outvoted by everyone else but um when it we started actually

26:06

developing the work and talking to art to the artist especially since it was getting planned towards the end

26:14

of 2020 it just seemed like the perfect like is there audio cutting out

26:19

can everyone hear her sorry belinda just one second can everyone hear or is the audio kinda

26:32

hello hey yeah we can hear you is it better is the audio better yeah

26:40

yeah it’s a lot better now i don’t know where it cut out but um yeah i was just uh

26:47

mentioning that it was a collaborative effort with the other members of the arts and culture task force i’m from tcu

26:56

and is it still cutting out i’m so sorry i don’t know how to fix it uh we can hear you better it’s just blue

27:02

it’s all good okay um but yeah so it was just a collaborative effort with the other members

27:08

and especially the planning process starting out towards the end of 2020 it just seemed like the perfect theme

27:14

for everybody to reflect on the year on and so a lot of the artists um

27:20

had already made pieces that were like reflective of the theme and i just

27:28

yeah it’s just like my process throughout it was just appreciating the opportunity to work

27:34

with black artists i am very content with the way that it turned out but i think i’m just always grateful

27:41

for the opportunity to like put black people and give them a platform to

27:46

showcase their art like i know masja has sold one of her first pieces ever at a

27:51

tcu exhibition and so being able to like do things like that and give opportunities to people is like

27:58

a very rewarding experience for me um reflecting on like everyone’s different

28:04

take on the theme of reflection was also um significant like fetsum

28:11

um peace on or like even casey cuppy sorry’s peace um

28:16

was very like i don’t know it spoke a lot to me about seeing yourself and um like in a mirror

28:23

image and like he talks about in his description how it’s

28:28

maybe a useful version of you but it lives in your head and it’s not just like um stuck in time that i thought that

28:34

that was very um valuable and it was just like i don’t know it’s just a really nice

28:40

notion to think about as well as like you mentioned whimsical lisa’s piece is like just

28:46

seeing everyone’s take on reflection like her piece daydreamer is just very beautiful and telling of like how

28:53

she once saw the world and how her experiences have led her to um her world views and perspectives of the

29:00

world today so yeah yeah no i agree it’s it’s been like an amazing ride like just

29:07

seeing how everything comes together seeing how everyone’s like intentions and visions like kind of

29:13

all meld together to create this exhibition because yeah i remember when we were coming up with the theme there’s just so

29:18

many ideas that were like okay i’m gonna just go with one direction and reflection was it and lisa actually came

29:25

up with that feeling the art of reflection yes and just seeing how like everyone’s because we had like this like show

29:30

passion showed this show that and they all kind of like still came together it was really really cool

29:36

so thank you so much melinda we’re actually gonna invite masha on and we’re going to talk to her for a little bit

29:41

so yeah we appreciate it no worrying bye guys

29:49

so masha you just have to request your two pieces if i like move a little bit you can see

29:55

matches pieces back there a little backdrop oh

30:00

this moves with me okay oops one second masha you can request

30:05

or i can maybe add you there we go

30:19

hi hey how are you i’m good thanks how are you i’m good i’m

30:26

so excited to talk to you about your pieces yes i’m so excited to be here too

30:32

hopefully when i describe them like i did them justice but if there’s anything you want to add on we’ll have that time for sure

30:37

i actually i came on just once you had already finished describing mine so i have no idea what you said but i’m sure

30:43

you didn’t okay um we can leave it there though we’ll ask you to just describe your pieces but yeah do you want to introduce

30:49

yourself to everyone and then just talk about who you are the kind of art you do etc

30:55

sure um my name is masha abdullah and uh i am a painter i mostly do portrait art

31:02

but i don’t want to limit myself because i’m hoping to explore more things and dinner um

31:08

i’m a fairly recent painter i started painting in 2017

31:14

um and didn’t really take it seriously it was kind of more just like a hobby and i was just learning

31:20

and then just uh when the panda mix started my sister encouraged me to start an

31:25

instagram page and kind of uh explore that more and that’s kind of when things started taking off

31:31

um so i’ve been really enjoying it and uh yeah like uh like gary khan said

31:37

uh i also tested positive for kovid and it ended up being kind of a blessing for my art career

31:42

because i had so much time to paint during those two weeks that i had to quarantine and i

31:47

i didn’t have any symptoms really so i was fine so that’s when i painted like my most popular piece and things started

31:53

taking off from there so um yeah god just took a bad thing and turn it into a good which is

31:59

kind of the theme of uh one of my paintings too so it was yeah it was really cool well thank you

32:05

so much for sharing that that’s actually an amazing story like just how you’re able to take that moment in the pandemic

32:10

and like create something so amazing you know so do you want to talk a little bit more

32:16

about your pieces and what you’re thinking or the minds that you were having when you’re creating them sure

32:22

yeah um i actually for both of those pieces i had just um i was painting them before

32:29

i was approached for the exhibition so i just had it on my heart that i should

32:34

create some pieces that i can eventually put in a gallery somewhere but i was thinking like in the distant future

32:40

and as soon as i was done with the the second piece i received an email uh from africa

32:46

center just uh asking me to be a part of this and i was like wow it’s perfect time um so i was able to apply the theme to

32:54

those paintings as well i felt like it really fit very well um the one with the darker background um

33:02

midnight blues the theme is a little bit uh darker just being in a period of

33:07

um just feeling more down and sad during the pandemic i think especially when the winter hit we can all relate to um

33:14

the mix of seasonal depression with the pandemic together um and just uh yeah just feeling the

33:22

lows and being able to just reflect on the lows and being okay with being in the

33:27

lows while having a hope that um god’s gonna come through eventually so that’s uh that’s kind of what my

33:34

thought was behind that one and then the second one with the the man with the brighter

33:40

background um that was kind of my uh the season that i was in at that

33:45

point where i was kind of coming off of that low season and just looking forward to

33:50

good things that were coming and obviously good things came so that one is called forward and i have

33:57

scriptures attached to both of them so for midnight blues i had lamentations 324 and it just says

34:04

i say to myself the lord is my portion therefore i will wait for him um so just waiting for god in those dark

34:11

times um and then the second one for forward i had isaiah 43 18-19 and it says do not remember the

34:19

former things nor consider the things of old behold i will do a new thing now it shall spring forth shall you not

34:26

know it i will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert so that was

34:31

just really um the message that i was holding on to at that time

34:37

yeah no i love that thank you so much for sharing like it’s amazing to see how you kind of interwove

34:43

like your own experiences your lived experiences with hope with like you know i guess lamentation

34:48

and you also have that element of spirituality in there as well that i think people can really

34:54

resonate with you know i think you look at the portraits and you’re like i see myself i see myself

35:01

i recognize those midnight blues you know i love that you like spoke about that

35:06

and hearing you talk about it i think really resonates you know and something i love about your pieces is that

35:12

honestly i’m not an artist y’all so when i see these pieces i’m just

35:17

always taking a bath and then you look at them in person because you know doing this

35:22

virtually you’re not able to really like see like we weren’t able to meet right or see the pieces

35:27

fully because of you know social distancing and the guidelines but looking at these pieces like in person there’s just so many things that

35:34

you don’t catch in images right like i love the eyes for midnight blue so that’s something i want people to like look at

35:40

like the eyes like really are eye-catching and then if you all look forward just

35:46

like your use of color like especially in the face like i see greens oranges reds like it’s so

35:52

beautiful so thank you so much for like sharing that with us and is there anything else that you want to add where

35:57

can people find you that kind of thing what are your future sneak peeks i guess of future pieces

36:04

um yeah so my instagram handle is the one that i have here it’s um at art dot by dot masha and i’m working

36:12

on a website hopefully soon i’ll be able to share that too and uh just upcoming stuff i’m i’m going

36:17

to be featured as the artist of the month at remedy cafe on 1 24th

36:23

um so i think for all of april i’ll have some of my pieces there so you guys can go and check that out

36:30

oh i love that so remedy on 124th art.buy.master and a website is coming

36:36

so that’s how you’ll find her in working beautiful pieces thank you so much thank you as well

36:42

thanks so much for having me i’m so grateful for you guys of course thank you we’re grateful for

36:47

you you know it’s interesting how you’re talking about oh since you’re still here i was gonna

36:52

just like talk to myself it was interesting how you were talking about how the emails kind of came

36:58

at the right time and in my head i remember just that moment oh i said these emails too late i should

37:04

have sent them this i should have sent them that and you’re like this is an idea to these emails that actually made me feel

37:09

a lot better so thank you for that awesome yeah okay well you guys have a great day and uh

37:15

yeah good luck to the other people who are about to talk yeah thank you see ya i think next we

37:22

have genesis new thing and it was spring for spring

37:29

time yup it’s so great to be in spring right now i think genesis is going to come on

37:35

someone has a question about what are our requirements for the art gallery or for this exhibition i guess i don’t

37:41

know exactly what our gallery requirements are maybe michael can tell us more about that but for our pieces that’s a really

37:47

interesting question our goal is to just provide artists with a platform so a lot of the times like you know we are always

37:54

looking for like new artists new pieces of work new disciplines that artists

37:59

that are you know obviously from the african caribbean and black community here in edmonton and we just try to figure out like how

38:04

we can feature their work so um we try to give everyone like so in this exhibition we have

38:10

actually a lot of new artists that we’ve never like featured in our exhibition before like let’s say precious or um aaliyah

38:18

or uh lisa themselves like we have some new artists so we really try to balance it with like

38:23

artists that we’ve never necessarily worked with before versus artists that we have so we try to

38:29

have a few events and initiatives that we can use to feature the artists here in edmonton because

38:35

there’s so many amazing artists but that’s kind of how it is i hope that makes sense

38:40

but um yeah but if you have a piece like you could always send it to us at the and like save it and whenever we need

38:47

artists we’ll go through that archive and reach out yeah uh is genesis here

38:53

let me see go live goodbye

39:02

i think it might have worked but yeah if you have any other questions or comments let me know yeah the art really

39:08

is beautiful oh justice is here hey hi how are you i’m well how are you

39:14

you look very lovely by the way ah thank you you’re doing a good job but i appreciate

39:20

it no i’m like it’s only my top half but yeah i’m going to take it that’s good chef’s case so do you want

39:27

to introduce the kind of art that you do um yeah sure hello my name is genesis

39:35

um i don’t really know i don’t think i’ve quite um decided quite yet on the type of art

39:43

that i create right now it’s just like acrylic on my canvas and some sketches here and there but uh

39:51

yeah that’s really that exploring i

39:56

guess you’re disciplining i love the piece that you did we’re gonna talk about it a little bit actually we can talk about it now

40:02

okay it is what it is like what was your like i guess i i kind of described it hopefully i did

40:07

some justice but i want to hear from you like what was your i guess experience creating that piece

40:13

um yeah so when because i kind of hopped on to like

40:18

um creating the piece or like the being part of it at the gallery a little

40:24

later than the others i think and i was kind of strangled like going all over the place trying to figure out

40:29

um what to create and um which is kind of weird for me because throughout 2020

40:35

all i did was reflect but yeah i reflected on so many things because it was so chaotic um for so do so many different reasons

40:43

um that it was kind of tough for me to [Music] pinpoint or land on one thing to create

40:50

on so i just decided to go inwards and kind of do a little bit of a

40:56

self-portrait type thing um with having the background to represent

41:02

all of the chaos like without it being just like one specific thing and uh i know that it is what it is it’s

41:09

because uh like you said it was just kind of like the theme within my friends and like how i felt about the year

41:15

um the lack of like hopelessness in so many different factors um being

41:21

stuck at home social um events that were unfolding i

41:28

guess in the world uh just it just it was very fitting there

41:33

it was a phrase that i said quite a lot that year a phrase that i heard quite a lot maybe

41:39

not in those exact wording but definitely same meaning and

41:44

uh yeah to just wrap it up i guess um i want it so like like you said um

41:51

earlier i did try to do like the contrast with the black and white and the background but then i did a

41:56

little lining across my eyes to just indicate like um like that’s all i saw

42:04

it’s kind of like um i think casey’s uh artwork i was um hoping that if you saw

42:11

that you would be able to kind of identify the chaos that like people probably

42:16

experienced last year also uh because people feel as though like not people feel it so there’s not saying

42:22

that like the eyes is the door to like someone’s soul i felt as though like my soul was

42:28

definitely not rested last year but yeah that was my piece my thought process

42:34

everything yeah thank you for sharing like i was definitely gonna ask you to talk about

42:39

that like focal point because for people who haven’t seen it like in her piece it’s a self-portrait but yeah those eyes it’s like a black

42:46

and white portrait and then there’s chaos all of these colors in the background but the eyes also have like a slash

42:52

through them and yeah it’s really cool that you’re talking about like you do that on purpose to show kind of the chaos that

42:57

you’re seeing and feeling even though you look kind of like neutral and yeah like i was very much numb through

43:04

everything but my eyes was like the only thing very active throughout that year so you

43:11

talked about like kind of creating things throughout the pandemic like and just throughout all of this like

43:17

i guess what has art like how his art helped you i guess with processing and reflecting and just

43:22

moving through with the pandemic does that make sense like yeah um

43:28

i think art for me throughout the pandemic and even before and moving forward is always just like

43:36

it’s a safe space it’s kind of why i call myself genesis it’s like to represent creation art for

43:43

me is a way to create a safe space art for me is a way to create sense of

43:48

chaos in my life it’s a way to process the good the bad ups the downs anything

43:56

really um yeah i did i answered that question yeah yeah

44:03

a way to like create because honestly one of like my lives aside from trying to figure out what my

44:09

uh life purpose i think second to that i’m always trying to

44:15

really um understand and be understood if that makes any sense to

44:22

to speak and be understood and to listen and understand so art helps me to do

44:29

that and uh creating and also consuming other people’s art allows me to kind of

44:36

do that in a way so i really love this um art gallery and all of like the artists and the work that they created

44:43

it’s just very lovely to um be a part of it and to watch you walk through all of the

44:49

works and stuff just now like i was out here hitting that heart button so fast like

44:54

i don’t even know it felt like the flash it’s so crazy to just see like the

44:59

connections like some of the connections like some of the gallery pieces were like okay like for example we have

45:05

lisa starting and matcha’s ending and yeah because like they both focus on

45:10

portraits but elisa’s i’m gonna just turn it all the way like elisa she does like black and white

45:16

portraiture and like has like a vibrant background then like maybe i shouldn’t have done this i’m

45:22

sorry but yeah like she also does like portraits but incorporates more vibrant

45:27

colors like hearing me talk about like how art connects to your healing and how it connects to like

45:34

just you know expressing your thoughts because you’re paired with fetsum’s art and his art is the exact same like

45:41

he talks about how he like grew up in a place where he wasn’t able to express his thoughts he wasn’t able to express

45:46

dissent and he used art as a way to express his thoughts and we never even realized that there was that connection between phetson’s

45:53

peace and earpiece where you guys both use art to kind of reflect how you’re being

45:59

chaotic moments so hearing you talk about that was like dang i should really pick up a brush

46:07

no yeah yeah it’s very lovely earlier you had pointed out or like mentioned

46:12

how you feel as though you’re not the most artistic individual but i feel as though like art’s so

46:17

beautiful in that sense that it’s like a neutralizing ground like to me personally i don’t think there’s

46:24

such a thing as bad art if that makes any sense there’s literally pieces of just a plain black dot and

46:32

that’s like you know groundbreaking so never think that your artistic ability

46:40

is like low because it doesn’t look like something else or what is i thought to be art

46:47

yeah as long as you’re creating i think that’s what you know yeah it’s like this is it’s just a

46:53

medium of self expression and there’s no good or bad it’s just neutral right so thank you for

46:58

that look at these gems okay instagram live

47:05

your piece is amazing i’m gonna invite everyone to look at it you’ll definitely see elements of your lived experience within

47:11

your life when you look at that piece so thank you so much thank you very much thank you for having me this was lovely

47:18

bye everybody i think the last person we have now is casey and we’ve actually been

47:25

talking about casey’s pieces for a minute so i’m excited to see him like

47:30

you know and talk about what he has to to say is casey still please see

47:42

let me just check casey

47:47

oh i can’t invite him

47:53

oh there you go

48:00

casey’s coming on we can all give him like a virtual clap when he’s here hey whoa look at that i

48:07

recognize that piece yeah i know i planned ahead i thought it was oh

48:13

i love it hey so do you want to introduce yourself the kind of art you do the kind of work

48:18

you do sure yeah so my name is casey krishnaki um hence my handle that’s i know a lot

48:25

of people ask me why the name krishna is in my handle it’s actually my middle name so it’s a given name to me

48:31

um yeah as an artist i dab a lot in creative direction graphic

48:36

design um and photography as well um and then recently now um i’ve taken upon painting um i’ve

48:44

always been a creative person i’ve always drawn and creative art my whole life but surprisingly this is the first time i’ve

48:50

ever actually publicly um put any of my artwork in a gallery so it’s a good experience i’m very happy to

48:57

to be a part of it um yeah 28 years old i have two kids and a wife and i’m a

49:03

black man [Laughter] claim it so do you want to talk a little

49:10

bit more about your piece before actually your piece has been coming up i don’t know if you’ve watched the live but a lot of people are like i see

49:15

myself in casey fees i resonate with kcsp so it’s interesting that you’re kind of ending it all off because

49:21

i want to hear you talk more about like your process when you’re creating it and what your intention was yeah sure so

49:28

um actually like a lot of the artists um this piece was actually started before you guys had

49:34

approached us um it was about eighty percent done when you guys had approached me um and the story behind this piece

49:41

actually was just so i work as a freelancer so at the end of the day working it was like midnight

49:46

i decided to go to sleep and i couldn’t sleep so i decided to draw what was in my mind and this was what was in my mind

49:52

it was this young black man um and yeah and i just kind of let it all out i used i use an ipad

49:58

for one of the first times and i just kind of let it all out i use pencil and paint on the ipad um uh using adobe software to kind of

50:06

create this and yeah it was just like it was in my head and then when you guys had uh reached out to me i was like

50:12

well this is perfect because i drew this in a time of reflection um it was

50:17

kind of mid pandemic in the middle of the summer things have been slowing down um and yeah and i was having trouble

50:24

sleeping because i’m worried about the next day like what’s going to happen the next day what are we going to do the next day

50:29

how am i going to make money the next day am i going to get this job this job right work as a freelancer it’s always like that but

50:35

i feel more of that pressure once you’re you’re kind of into pandemic um so i thought this was interesting

50:41

because it really kind of brought me to a younger version of myself um a younger version of myself

50:48

this kind of this is how i kind of i pictured him you know very artistic very creative um and

50:54

that’s what i’ve been kind of focusing on ever since i guess the pandemic has started just kind of holding my creative skills

51:00

and using that to my advantage to kind of keep my spirits up keep my my

51:06

energy up um everything i do comes from my creativity so

51:11

yeah no thank you for that interesting too there’s like another parallel because like in your piece you talked

51:16

about how that image just came from your consciousness and then we also have shaheen’s piece which is another image

51:22

that came like you know in the midst of like him thinking and just in the midst of his consciousness but

51:27

it’s really amazing like i guess how many people are resonating with the words that you have in your description and just like different

51:33

features of that person because yeah the eyes are very captivating i don’t know it’s like you look at me and you’re like

51:39

there’s something in there let me just see real quick you know so it’s you know that like that’s what i

51:45

came about oh we’re gonna add something yeah yeah i was gonna actually add one more thing about the skin

51:51

so there’s not a lot of definition until you get really close um and that’s kind of intentional um and

51:57

that that um that style actually i was inspired by a famous black artist carrie

52:02

james marshall and he paints um black characters with black paint with just like a little bit

52:07

of white pigment pigment to kind of add a little bit of shade so that’s kind of what inspired me to

52:13

kind of make his skin um that type of color and that tone as well no that

52:18

makes so much sense because like like i said like when you’re seeing images like just online you’re not able to catch like all

52:24

the different like intentions or the small details that you have and i think that’s why i was like looking at it like closer like wait

52:29

there’s something here like i know there’s something else here yeah and it’s amazing that people were

52:36

able to kind of see that and kind of get that from the painting and as well from the description as well so that’s really

52:42

cool so i think you guys did a really good job of helping me bring that to life oh no problem i just i’m so happy

52:49

that like i got to be in this space and we finally get to see i feel like i’m always emailing y’all like it’s

52:55

still not over

53:05

there’s just a lot of emotion and intention in this space especially when you start having these conversations with the artist and you

53:11

start seeing like okay this is what reflection meant like to me like this is how it connects i have themes of hope things of passion

53:18

things of hopelessness you know things of loss i think that’s just like such a cool

53:23

thing and i love how your piece kind of works is like a grounding element you know so it’s like okay we see how everyone’s like art is here

53:31

we see their intentions their emotions that they were creating and your art kind of like is like okay now

53:37

reflect that back into yourself like what do you now see you know so is there anything else that you

53:42

wanted to like talk about like just in terms of colors or like how did it make you feel i guess when you’re done with the

53:48

the piece um um i was very like like i was proud of

53:55

myself obviously um because i mentioned to you this was like one of the first submissions i’ve ever had in a art gallery anywhere um

54:03

as part of myself i was actually very proud of like the come up and the community that like you guys were able to have

54:09

this opportunity and offer that opportunity to us and all the other artists um i was just kind of honored to be part

54:15

of something like this and like my peers like i think very highly of them they’re all very talented so

54:21

yeah i was just kind of feeling of like belonging happiness a lot of a lot of positive emotions so

54:28

thank you well that’s so thank god

54:34

yeah and if i add one more thing um when i first started my journey on an artist one of the first things i

54:39

learned is to create with a purpose so whether whatever art you’re doing whether it’s photography videography

54:45

painting uh just direction styling even if it’s social media content if

54:50

you’re doing it with a purpose that’s always going to give you that fulfillment that we’re all looking for in art so

54:56

i would just kind of like to pass that information on to other artists or anybody out there listening wow there’s so many gems from this live

55:02

like i think i’m going to be looking back and i’ll be a budding artist soon i’m gonna

55:07

learn from all of y’all so thank you so much casey thank you all the artists who participated i appreciate it

55:13

thank you have a great one yeah you too thank you so yeah casey was the last artist that

55:21

we’re talking to today if you have any questions i think we have like five minutes left before the live

55:27

like left for the live show that’s also if you have any questions um please share um yeah i just want to

55:34

acknowledge like all the artists that you know came together like jay dante he is such an amazing

55:40

artist and he actually has um more pieces i think it’s like a continuation of his series here up like with the gallery

55:47

with the with five artists one love but you know you look at these pieces and i feel like each time you come you’ll see something

55:53

else that could like see something different that connects with you so de dante i want to acknowledge pretzel lisa um precious elia she wasn’t

56:02

able to meet you today elisa like thank you so much for like i guess blessing the space

56:09

not to get all spiritual but like it’s just really amazing i think to see the end result so

56:17

thank you and and thank you for for trusting us with with your pieces and with this vision um

56:22

if does anyone have any questions or any final comments that they want to say this is the end of the last

56:30

yeah and big ups to the africa center as well um we’re a program under the africa center

56:35

by you to come up and we also have the mental health program as well that’s here um you can look at their pieces as well

56:41

try to figure out how art can connect to mental health but if not oh gee donkey’s here hit me

56:49

thank you so much for your pieces they’re amazing but yeah if there’s no other questions i

56:54

guess we can like shut off the like now you’re welcome genesis

57:00

i wish i could send hearts back i know that’s not for me thank you and

57:07

thank you again to the art gallery of alberta for like giving us this opportunity it’s been an amazing experience and the learning opportunity

57:13

for us hopefully we can create more pieces and more exhibitions thank you to five artists one love who

57:19

reached out with this opportunity and connection with the art gallery and helped us like build

57:24

this relationship and build this opportunity so they have an exhibition happening back every day i think it’s

57:30

happening right now but again because of the pandemic we’re not able to visit it so when you come to see the art of

57:35

perfection definitely go to see five artists one love black everyday it’s beautiful i already know

57:41

and they feature such talented artists i haven’t seen it but i know it’s gorgeous

57:47

yeah thank you to everyone and yeah have a great one bye

No results found