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hi there everyone thank you all so much for joining us this evening my name is sarah huffman and i am the

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art rental and sales associate here at the art gallery of alberta we welcome you to our meet the artisan

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series a part of aga live which is newly presented by epcor’s heart and soul fund

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here at the gallery we embrace the teachings of tatewa a kree phrase meaning welcome there is room

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in our house even the virtual one everyone is welcome i’m delighted to be your host for this

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hour joining me today is eleni goodwill little child before we dive into the subject

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i’d like to highlight that this is an interactive event and we’d like to hear from you you’re welcome to use the chat window on

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the side screen to share your comments as we discuss with eleni if the question gets unnoticed or

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unanswered at the time please know that we will review all unanswered questions before we wrap up today’s event

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so eleni has a wonderful bio that she’s prepared for us and i’m just going to read that before we uh introduce her so eleni goodwill

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little child is a dakota lakota sioux woman raised in the treaty six community of

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muskosi alberta as a girl eleni developed a strong bond

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and natural talent to the many forms of traditional art within her dakota lakota culture it is

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important for her to be respectful and keep the integrity of traditional knowledge by sharing cultural significance

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traditional techniques and advocating on the importance of cultural identity

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and education eleni’s quill work traditional dolls bead work and

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paraflesh paintings are among the most popular pieces that remain in private collections worldwide

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she was the only alberta artist to be selected for the coca-cola aboriginal art bottle

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exhibit and auction for the 2010 olympic winter games in vancouver she was also featured in

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the exhibition the art of craft cultural unfade at the museum of vancouver eleni has

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been a contributor to the bee yellowtail collective since 2016.

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bethany yellowtail is a prominent fashion designer and the collective supports and

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showcases indigenous designers and artists to a broader fashion audience the

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collective supports each other in sharing and owning their narrative as well as supporting social justice

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issues and making change eleni’s pieces have been worn at events such as the 90th

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annual academy awards by youth activist shawna long her pieces were also featured in nike’s

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n7 dare to rise commercial featuring youth ambassador jude chimel and in spike lee’s be truly

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free eleni also collaborates with other designers both local and international in addition to being an

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artist she’s a wonderful mother registered social worker advocate business owner and art

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instructor please take this time with me to give a warm welcome to our november artisan

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eleni goodwill little child hi hello

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how are you good thank you how are you doing i’m good keeping warm yeah on this

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chilly day yeah

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absolutely well thank you so much for joining us this evening eleni i loved reading your bio and and

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starting to learn a little bit more about your craft and i’m really excited to ask you some

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questions and and get to know more about about you well let me see thank you so much i’m

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glad to be here awesome are the earrings you’re wearing are those a part of your collection

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yeah so i’m trying to find time to do a few restocks and then just make some

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pieces available um for christmas or you know whatever so i do have

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these sets so they’re on my instagram um and then i have a couple restocks um on

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the yellowtail website so you could just find that on my instagram or you can just go straight to

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um the website so yeah there’s a lot of beautiful pieces out way that’s so exciting well with the

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holidays it’s always so nice to support local artisans and i’m super excited to showcase

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uh some of the pieces that we have on the presentation this evening so i’m just going to pop over to the next slide

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um and let’s talk about these pieces yeah so i

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i feel so blessed to have been able to um create pieces with amazing and

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beautiful materials um so you’ll see a small set of dentillium

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fan style earrings um and what’s special about those is their antique so they were from you

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know the northwest coast and they were collected in the 1970s so that in itself is beautiful but to be

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able to work with that heritage material and to kind of bring a new spin with the

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24 karat um beads is what i really like to do so i like to pair our traditional work with some

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modern um flair to it so yeah absolutely wonderful

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and how did you acquire those pieces well um it’s tricky

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so you have to uh even for some of the trade leads um so the materials that a lot of

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artists um like myself do is we try to get antique pieces so

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we would like um the 24 karat gold beads um so there’s a small group that we kind

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of help each other out um and so for this particular set i had to

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trade some cloverware or identity um so i’m excited to see you know what’s

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gonna happen in 2021 yeah absolutely and uh the pieces on the

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top left corner um can you explain uh explain those pieces for us yeah so

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um i have never are from we don’t have trees we don’t have a lot of trees so we

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have to utilize something else to tan our hides um so i’ve never

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actually had a fully smoked tide because they’re very very expensive and they’re very labor intensive

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um and they’re very precious to us so um yeah i think somebody was raffling it

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and i bought a ticket and i won and it was so amazing yeah it was so i was crying yeah

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it’s such a beautiful and i never win anything and so i have that and i never use it so

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and then i was like you know what i need to share it because if i just keep it and

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i’m scared to use any of it like what’s the point of me having it um so i decided to make um some lanyards

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so what i love about smoked and hide is we have you know this smoked smell is what

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brings so much comfort to me as to a lot of people um and so in that way whenever i smell

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smoke tied i always feel comforted and i always feel good so i didn’t want to use all of the

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smoked hide and you know do anything on top of it that would take away from that natural smell

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um so i made sure to just kind of do a few embellishments but then have the hide you know be the main focus

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yeah highlight resource absolutely yeah and how um how did you find working

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with it as compared to working with the other materials that you work with um well smoked high just because it’s so

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special but it’s also really easy to work with so because it’s been processed in this slow

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um you know tradition that have been passed down from generations it has this

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subtleness of you know it still has um you know it’s a strong hide

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but the needle that we pass through it it just slides through so it’s not really hard on your hands

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um and so for me working with it is was pretty good like i mean i love

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working with that but of course like um i also wanted to be washable because sometimes you know we wear makeup or we

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have our masks or whatever so i made the opposite side something that you can wash so you can kind of

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quickly you know wipe it down um and then something really accessible for everybody

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so that was the focus of those pieces and i just wanted to see how they would turn out um i usually have

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three or four projects that i started and i’m like you know what i don’t know i’ll come back to it and so that those

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actually were the quilt pieces on there um they were from a year prior i made them and i had no

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idea why i made them i wanted to see how they turned out and then it just came like this past some

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like you know let’s see if i could go back and see if i could bring something different to it so i was really happy how they turned out i

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love working with it um and so the circles are rawhide which is another

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um material that we use so it’s um it’s hard and it it’s very durable

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so i did a couple of series of some aj lives with um liz we did pair flush

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boxes so that was the type of material that we used oh okay yeah so we were that’s when we

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were talking about that so i wanted to kind of bring that in as well yeah

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cool and with the uh bracelets what is the base of those

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so they’re actual bracelet blanks so they’re brass blanks which i have to order so it’s

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kind of hard that we’re up here in canada to get a lot of the supplies that i need because

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um there’s just not a lot of option here there are some but i usually import all of my materials

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that i use um with the exception of some beads and then needles and thread and i try to do

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that locally and so um that’s really important as well but for the bracelets um what i did was

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we used what did i use oh no i think i use commercial hide

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okay the base and then on the back i use like leather um and that’s pretty

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tough to work with um but i love the way it always turns out and i

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always try to make it so that you could wear it but it’s not um if you drop it it’s fine right so when

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my children were younger when they were much much younger um they would play with some of

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you know my and i’d be like okay that’s good because if you’re little and you’re a child and you’re dropping things and

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you’re pulling and whatever i wanted to make it durable so i think that i thank my kids for that but

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they’re all grown up now they’re in their twenties and teens yeah absolutely well especially

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with the earrings too right like you don’t want something that’s like ridiculously heavy that you know it’s uncomfortable to wear

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after a while yeah well i used to be like that like i had to

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i had to really usually when i make something i if you see me in the gallery or at work

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i don’t wear any jewelry um and so when i do

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it’s usually big it’s some statement pieces so i had to learn that not everybody

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wants huge earrings so the pair of earrings that are featured there those were made for my mom oh yeah yeah

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so i made them for her for mother’s day um because she wanted to wear something but

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something light and something that’s not you know heavy and like she really loves wearing um

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all different types of jewelry so i had to make them you know i had to step up step out of my box of huge

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statement pieces and but that’s how it was growing like as a designer you know things and colors like i at

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one point even in my work i only use pastels for like 10 years yeah i had to learn

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how to branch out of that um which was difficult because i always did a white background i always did

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you know soft blues pinks purple so i really had to grow um and i’m really glad because i

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was scared at first but then when you push yourself you’re like i don’t know if anybody will like it like you know but then yeah so then you and

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you look back at your old stuff and you’re like oh man what was i thinking yeah

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literally all all pinks all purples all blues like nothing else

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and so i was like okay well you know i’m glad that i’m out of that stage because sometimes i’ll get in that mode i’ll be

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like that would really look good in a pink but it’s like no you could do it in red

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it’s okay and so the process from you getting from

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that stage to the stage where you are now or you’re a little bit more uh exploratory in

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in your designs um was there someone who was kind of pushing you in

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that direction or as an artist were you just like it’s time for me to grow

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well you know i’m thankful that i’ve always had um artists

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and creatives in my family so the family that i come from um the goodwill family there everybody

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is an artist everybody is creative um so my uncle my mom’s brother wayne goodwill

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he um had some pieces in saskatchewan and it was deciphering

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saving bull’s robe um and so he’s one of the last hide painters

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and so you know even my aunties my cousins they’ve all taught me i didn’t learn this on my own i didn’t

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wake up one day and i know all of this they were kind enough to teach me and to show me and

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i had questions and growing up with you know my mom always did work um

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my mom’s a teacher so she’s a professor but when we were younger she would make us everything that we had

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um so i’ve been raised in the powwow circle since i was very very young my family is also very

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prominent in that circle so i was always surrounded by that um and then just understanding the

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stories that came with it um and the importance of why we use the designs we do

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because when we look at our traditional designs it tells you everything it tells you

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what family you’re from it tells me what your family um you know finds important

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color symbols you know it tells you where you’re located so it has a lot of information into

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those designs so even just understanding and learning um is still a process you know and so i was

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very thankful that my mom um encouraged me you know my family did and as i got

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older it went from just being something that i liked to do

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to more of like a meditative process and so that’s where i feel like i really

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um and i’ve always made things and i’ve always had them available for you know purchase

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or things like that because sometimes i used to think oh i want i wonder how this would look but i wouldn’t wear it

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on for myself because i’d be too you know shy or whatever um

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and so it really developed i developed different when i became a mom as well so

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i did make things for my kids and then them traveling with me and then experiencing all these

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um you know things that were happening and so growing from that too um

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i think that that really helped me mature as a designer um and then just learning

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from other people we always found value in

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our pieces and so we always knew that they were important but to be able to

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bring that to a broader audience i think is important as well um and so that’s what i really loved

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about evolving as an artist and then when i was doing social work um so i’m an rsw and so when i was in

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the process of that you know it’s a different field and a lot of times

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that process helped me to deal with a lot of things that i was learning or you know some of

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the tough things that were happening um because it’s a very you know i went

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into indigenous social work as well so we had a lot of classes that dealt

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with you know the history of residential school um 60s scoop um

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we look at you know indian day school my children are the first generation

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to not be in a segregated school you know so for me when you’re learning

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about that it takes a toll not only as a student but as an indigenous person

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and so using traditional art to help me get through that um was what i really

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valued and i’m really thankful that i did um and so i thought that you know these

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teachings and the things that i’ve learned they’re not just mine

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so what i wanted to do was to bring that into social work so when i paired those two

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things then it helped me create something different and so i feel like i matured past

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you know i i went a little bit further than i than i think in my daringness to

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try colors so so that was all of these things so everything that i make always has you know layers and layers

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but that’s what art is that’s what you know being creative is and sharing stories and

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you know so that that’s what i love about it because i’m changing you know even though i’m i haven’t had a

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lot of new pieces lately because um we’re homeschooling yeah it’s really nice to

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take a break and do that and so yeah so it fulfills so many different areas of

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life yeah it definitely does and like learning from the processes and taking in

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things that you’re going through in life and it just changes everything just that little bit and so

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that when you reflect on it you can really learn and grow from that as well and i think that’s

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really really really interesting and uh and the jewelry is just like such a cool

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um it’s just so it’s so cool to me i love the pieces that you create and uh

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yeah that means a lot thank you that means a lot because you know it’s you know we never know

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like i don’t know if something people will like anything or you know whatever and

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so it’s really i’m really thankful thank you for saying that because you know it does mean a lot because you

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feel a connection with each other and so that’s that’s what i love is you know

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connectivity connecting with each other and yeah i appreciate it absolutely for sure

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and i’m just going to pop over to the next slide here because we have a couple more bracelets but now

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some hats as well um so uh tell me the story about this hat

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oh that um is with a private collector um

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he is a director

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um and so i was really happy that he chose to purchase one of my hats

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um how i got into hats was my dad so my dad is a cowboy um he’s in his

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late 70s but he’s still you know a cowboy um and so he would always say like oh can you make me

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this or can you you know make me a hat like he would kind of casually bring it

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up so i would i would i would do i would you know that was the first hat i ever

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you know embellished was my dad’s you know cowboy hat um and he would always give things away

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like people would be like oh i love your hat and he’d be like oh here you know because that’s just how

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you know being traditional like a traditional cream man is um and us is in general like you’re

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looked at for the more that you can give so my dad always you know gave gives people things so um

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yeah so that’s how i started you know make you know getting into hats yeah um and then yeah it was

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i think it was like 2016 2017 there was a big resurgent in you know hats like this um

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so i like making flat rims um so i become well versed on different

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types of hats which materials i enjoy working with and which i don’t or which is harder

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because it’s really hard on your hands um especially going through the brim and

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so yeah um but i enjoyed doing it because it’s

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i like working on black hats of course because the colors pop a lot but i also um

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yeah enjoy playing with color like see i have pink in there but there’s you know green and and all of those

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different colors and so that working on hats has made me um

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kind of push myself out of the zone of just normal design work as well

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because because our designs do have a meaning and so it’s like what do i want to put in it you know what do i want

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this to say or how do i want the energy of this hat to be right now so yeah so that’s what i was

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really into um yeah yeah the the baileys i’m still really into bailey hats they’re probably

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the best so yeah if i if i could tell anybody um get baileys because they’re easy to take

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care of some of them you can just like throw in the wash and you can you know and it doesn’t compromise

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um the form of the hat and then um i always say just play with hat bands

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like layer layer hat bands on each other um so yeah i love i even now like i have

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a few hats that i have um in a box so i do i’m doing a hat

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collaboration with hand puy hats in berkeley and so

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those hats that he makes are absolutely stunning and so i’m very thankful that

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you know we’re doing a collaboration together um and they’ll be working those you know in

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the coming few weeks and we’ll see how that works out but yeah i always tell people get yourself a good hat yeah

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and yeah you can wear it in the winter in the summer and but yeah like always is layer your

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hat bands and then don’t be afraid of shapes because i didn’t think the bowler had i didn’t

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think i would like to work on a bowler hat and then i did i was like oh okay you know like this isn’t bad so i really

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like the shape of that um and locally i believe it is in west edmonton mall

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oh yeah chappelle hats yeah yeah yeah so i’ve gotten a couple of hats

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from there um a couple of years ago but they have really good hats there as well

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and then locally too you can do um of course all the cowboy hats and stuff so yeah yeah absolutely and what like

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uh what challenges maybe did you face with doing a hat like this versus a cowboy hat or

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like what are the different um like structures that you had to work

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with yeah so cowboy hats are probably the hardest because of this they’re very stiff right and they have

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to be um but the brim you it’s just yeah i think it’s just

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making sure like it’s a long process so you’re sitting there and you’re having to make sure that the brim

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um is equal all the way around um and so that takes a long time so

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sometimes i have to use like a two process so i have to use an awl and then i have to take pliers and

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like pull it through and then count all my beads and then you know stick a whole uh stick my all in there

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and then pull it through with pliers again so it takes you know a really really long time

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but i figured that that the only way i was able to see which hats i like to

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work with in which i didn’t was i just bought a ton of different hats yeah um so with

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the bowler that’s shown there um that was originally going to be for

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uh the glenbo i have the needle exhibition um so i had a few hats

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prepared for that but i just wanted a very um small variety of like different hats that they

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could choose so we ended up picking i believe a top hat and a flat brim

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and i had this one left over but i hadn’t um beated the brim yet and so

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working with that hat was a lot easier the brim was than the cowboy hat and the top hat

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and then the flat brim so i have a couple questions for you in the meantime um

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in terms of process do you typically start a project and then you know maybe

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your hands are really tired you start another project or you know do you sit down and just

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plan everything out give me a sense of your uh your process

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yeah well that’s a really good question so i usually i have like a few basics so i know

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i’ve had to learn how to only do three varieties of something right but

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um when i want to try something new i usually just

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it’ll be in my mind and i will sketch it on my phone but it won’t be

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it’ll be like lines right just to kind of give me an idea of what structurally i’m looking

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for yeah um and so i will usually plug at it

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for a while but it will be constantly like i if i really want to try something i won’t like i won’t do anything else

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yeah um so i usually try to go with sets of pieces so if i’m really in a hat mood

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then i’ll do a ton of hats yeah which i haven’t been into for a while

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so i’m due for that right um but also you know i wanted because i like

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the the heritage collection of the antique dentillium i you know will

27:46

see some and i’m always looking for materials so i saw these 24 karat gold rose gold

27:53

beads and so i will here and there buy things so i usually have hordes of 24 karat

28:00

beads everywhere and then i’ll just feel like it one day and i’ll just sit down and i’ll do like

28:05

five pairs right um and so then i’m seeing what i like and what i don’t like so i’m

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always tweaking whatever piece that i’m doing but i usually just focus on one

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um and so i tried to i’ve been struggling with a new style of earring with dentillium

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um since before kobit so uh i’m still at it to see because you

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know i want something that’s not big but not you know i’m trying to get it so that everybody can enjoy

28:36

you know size wise so that’s kind of what i do i’ll do

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something until i feel that i love like i love how it is or i just need to

28:47

let it go and move on um but for the most part i just think of something concentrate on what

28:52

it is that i want to make and then just continue to do it until i’m done right

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and then that way i don’t have to go back to you know if i’m doing all dentillium at

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one time that i’m fine with that and i could rest from you know creating gentillium pieces for

29:10

six months right um and so that’s kind of the process that i go through but yeah absolutely have you ever gone

29:17

back and uh like restructured a piece at all or like once you’re done you kind of like

29:24

let it let it go well every piece too yeah i’ve definitely created things and

29:31

then just we’ll see how it goes and but i’ve definitely learned

29:38

the importance of materials and technique so i’ve had to learn how to do

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you know like jewelry things so i had to um not use so many traditional materials

29:50

like sinew or you know i had to do i had to put in wire

29:55

you know to maintain like the structural integrity of you know some quill work right so

30:02

in that way i’ve definitely and i’ll probably continue to you know see what is easier as i get

30:09

older too um you know my hands really you know have been through it so

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i don’t do as much as i used to but i definitely still do you know things

30:23

every night or every you know little while that i get some time but

30:29

yeah no but i’ve definitely gotten easier and and being more open to learning so

30:35

learning new techniques or asking other jewelers like what they think would look good or you know

30:42

so i’m more open to not being scared to ask because before i’d be too

30:49

scared i’d be like oh i’ll just figure it out and you know but yeah

30:54

yeah absolutely and how are you finding it um working with other artisans and

30:59

collaborating on projects oh my well um

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i think that as artists it’s important because we all have a story we all represent different

31:15

you know lives and communities um when i started collaborating it was usually with not so

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much like design pieces but just like larger like bags and things like that um but

31:27

then when i started to really collaborate was probably when

31:33

i joined the collective so i was one of the first artists to um be asked to be a part of the

31:39

collective so what would happen was we would get you know the the release of

31:45

whatever it is bethany was creating and we would just create pieces to accompany that and so

31:51

in that way it helped me to see things differently

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than what i’ve done before um and see what worked and see what didn’t work

32:01

you know it was such a learning you know curve at the beginning because there wasn’t a lot of you know designers and um

32:10

artisans that were coming like we we have but it’s not as much as

32:15

like in the u.s so i think that’s where i really flourished and i’m thankful for that um

32:22

and so only only in the past few years have i collaborated with um other canadians which is really good as

32:27

well but yeah it’s such a different scope of it and i’m so glad that

32:33

i could contribute something or can learn something from the artists or the designers of

32:39

creating pieces right yeah it is it’s a relationship and so you know it’s actually expectations yeah

32:47

i feel like there’s more of like an overarching goal as like as a collab like as a team

32:53

that’s collaborating on something rather than just being an individual artist being this is what i want to try

32:59

this is what i want to do but having that like very um singular vision and like you want this

33:06

outcome for everybody i think that’s really interesting and definitely something useful as an artist so that when you go

33:13

back to working singularly you’re like oh i feel so much more confident going into

33:18

this area or this area yeah well yeah and the thing is too is like i because i was on my own for so

33:25

long um you know i and i’m a mom and i was in school and i was working and i was

33:31

you know doing my practicum all of these things for me it was easier to focus on the creative part

33:37

because i wasn’t having to take the photos i wasn’t having to

33:43

you know um market it that i could just create a piece and it

33:49

fit very well and then to hand it to somebody who was more experienced than i was um and

33:55

so that’s what i really enjoyed about it because and i had more time to continue you know

34:02

finish school and then continue to work and travel and do all of these um like other things that i probably

34:09

wouldn’t have had even the money to do right and then i wouldn’t have

34:15

gotten into you know have the opportunities to be featured in the met or to have my pieces at the oscars

34:22

you know and i was successful as an artist on my own and a designer on my own but

34:29

you know it was so helpful for me to be asked you know i was so i’m always

34:34

so thankful when somebody asks but also to yeah to have a group of people that

34:40

the the goal in the end is to showcase each other’s you know tribes

34:47

and the pieces that we find important to our tribes and have that accessibility to everybody

34:52

um especially to non-native communities and non-native collectors because then they know they’re getting

34:58

an authentic piece um and then it’s going back into the

35:03

you know artist and back into the community so you know it’s a blessing to do

35:09

collaborations yeah absolutely and we do have one more

35:14

slide here with my favorite hat that is my favorite hat

35:19

too that was a very collaborative effort i’m so blessed um so i had created a piece

35:27

i had usually i don’t take orders or commissions really um and so i had a couple pieces of

35:34

dentillium work and when somebody is interested in buying you know a piece i’m always you know i’m

35:41

like oh great like thank you so much and i usually write them a note and you know just tell them how much you

35:47

know their support means to me so um i didn’t know that the woman who had bought one of my

35:54

pieces it was for her wedding and so it was like oh my gosh like that’s something that’s so

36:00

amazing and i’m very thankful to be part of you know her day so she wanted a hat and

36:07

so i usually have a few hats um in storage and so i just kind of bro

36:12

i was like yeah for sure of course so i brought some hats she really liked that one that was a flat brim

36:18

um and so she really just talked about what type of piece she wanted um what colors and then so

36:26

i was like okay and then she was like okay um yeah and you can just ship it and i was like okay so i didn’t

36:32

know she didn’t see it i had a couple photos but you know she didn’t she was like well we’ll just

36:38

you know see what it when it gets here and that was the hat and so uh i was so happy that she loved

36:44

it and you know so yeah it’s one of my favorite it’s one of my

36:51

favorites yeah they have a special connection with each of each piece yeah and it’s a piece of me you know

36:58

like so it’s like i i love it and i love yeah but for sure that’s one of my favorite and it’s a

37:04

flat room so yeah you can’t go wrong it must be so difficult to make a piece

37:11

that you are like oh this is so me like this is like i created this for me almost and

37:17

like and like watch it go so my question for you is okay that’s

37:22

when i know yeah and then been like i’m just gonna keep this for me

37:30

okay every single time if i’m like oh my gosh i love that oh my gosh and then i have

37:37

to set it away i’m like okay then that’s then that’s the the result of like

37:43

my creative process for that piece if i don’t want it and if i don’t want to wear it because sometimes too like i

37:49

have really sensitive ears so i can’t like i don’t really wear a lot of jewelry right so

37:54

yeah when i’m like oh like i love that but i know you know i won’t be able to

38:01

wear it like my daughter has she doesn’t have her ears purse so i had to you know we had to we had to make

38:08

clip-ons for her but so yeah if it’s something that i really like really really love

38:14

i just send it off but i do get really nervous when they’re off when they’re in the post yeah like i

38:22

i’m always like oh please make it safely you know please like get to you safely because it is it’s a

38:28

piece of me and i’m always like thank you like this past month i think the farthest that one of my pieces went

38:34

um was to hawaii and so the set of earrings i’m like you guys have an

38:40

amazing time you know your new life in hawaii yeah so you know that’s how it is

38:48

because yeah it’s like the spirit of like you know this little collaboration that i have with

38:54

these you know natural materials so yeah it’s always really nice

38:59

yeah and you’re taking it from something that’s so natural and so raw and embellishing it

39:06

in such beautiful ways that once it’s finished it’s like its own little

39:11

like being it is it honestly is and that’s like one of the teachings

39:16

that we have too is that everything we create like has that spirit and you’re putting that spirit into what

39:23

you’re making um and so using you know

39:28

this process to help me you know even through challenging time

39:34

you know i’ll be so happy that i’m asked you know to make something special but even if it’s like a not so good feeling

39:40

that i have that’s a part that i’m working through as well and that’s what the art

39:46

and that process helps me with so in that way it is that healing part even if i’m like

39:52

you know upset or a little bit emotional or maybe i’m you know tired and

39:58

exhausted yeah that spirit of resilience goes into that piece and so that’s what

40:04

i love about that process because it’s helping me it’s like helping me

40:11

sort out you know who i am or celebrating things or you know yeah that’s such a

40:17

good point eleni like when you’re going through life and as an artist you’re

40:23

faced with you know i have to get this goal or have to finish this project or whatever and it’s hard to

40:31

cross that line and step into okay i’m being an artist now and i have to focus on this when

40:36

really you had a really long day or you know all this stuff and and you don’t really want to create

40:42

at that moment but then pushing through and then finding that happiness in the end or finishing that project and it feels

40:49

so much better and that healing that comes through that process was really yeah yeah

40:57

yeah and so but i’m so i’m so thankful that like i haven’t chatted about my work in a really long

41:04

time do you ever um create like paint

41:11

like more so like paintings or any type of like sculptures or anything like that or do you specifically work

41:18

in jewelry now so i have um so i make traditional dolls

41:26

um which are really important in our culture and they’re also used as a teaching tool in our coming of age

41:31

ceremonies so i used to do a lot of that but i don’t do it anymore um and so what i also started to

41:39

do um i don’t do any sculptures but i do um do small framed pieces so

41:46

that’s something that i’m trying to kind of convert everything i i have done it in the past like i’ve done a lot of

41:52

framed pieces um but i want to kind of because like not everybody wants jewelry or not

41:59

everybody you know um so i’m trying to make that more accessible as well but i

42:05

am starting to really get interested in lionel cut um and so i’ve kind of been dabbling

42:13

in that for the past little while to just kind of see where you know i

42:20

it’s just something that i thought was always amazing and especially working at the gallery um because i see so many different and

42:27

i’m and i don’t when i first started working there like i didn’t have a lot of knowledge in contemporary art

42:33

and so with learning that through you know being there and and understanding the history that

42:39

has encouraged me to kind of branch out in that way and what can i bring to

42:44

you know another medium and so although i don’t do exclusively you know painting or

42:51

you know sculpting it’s something else that i that i would like to kind of continue to

42:59

see if i like it or not or yeah yeah well explore it and bring your own

43:06

your own artist’s eye to that type of medium yeah yeah exactly and like even with

43:14

being an urban aboriginal person too um so the type of traditional pieces that i

43:21

do it’s really land-based so you know being in a city you

43:26

can’t you know dye porcupine quills right in the yard like all of these

43:31

things that you would traditionally be able to do you can’t do here so i thought it was really interesting to see

43:38

well what it what does my environment have you know to die quills with you know

43:45

what what can i forage around here that would do something like that so even that part is very um like i’ve

43:51

been thinking about that a lot too so how can i dye porcupine quills with something that isn’t

43:56

you know like outside right is that workable is that you know so

44:02

yeah so i’m exploring those um things too which i think is really interesting and especially

44:08

now with homeschool um with my son so we’re we’re just trying to see how

44:14

you know to navigate it as well as everybody else so right

44:20

absolutely um i think i just have one or two more questions for you and then we’ll wrap up so if anybody in the

44:27

chat wants to send over um a question for eleni please do so now

44:33

um so my question for you is when you’re creating a new piece or a new project do you have a specific

44:41

outcome of what you want to create or does it typically um create itself as

44:48

you continue working on it

44:53

i think i always have a specific

44:58

image or texture or feeling or emotion that i have but it never turns out how i think that

45:05

it works and so yeah it’s usually like very

45:11

like okay and then i’ll put it away and like go to bed and then yeah so it

45:16

usually starts out i usually start out with like this in my head but very rarely does it ever yeah you know

45:24

turn it out exactly yeah because you mentioned having like a structure and having like okay i know

45:29

the process and i know the technique of what to do um but that like overall feeling at the end once you’ve finished

45:36

it and you’re like oh this isn’t really what i intended to make but i’m yeah

45:44

i’m like here is and then that’s how you see like a bunch of new work that i have and i’ll be like oh it

45:49

doesn’t look too bad and like yeah so it was like even like using

45:54

traditional traditional materials and like bringing you know using that material but using

46:01

you know a very contemporary uh medium is something that’s like interesting too

46:08

but that’s how it is like even with our para flash painting series and then even for

46:14

national aboriginal day that’s the point you want to connect with people and say that you know like we all have

46:20

those things but this is the medium that we choose to you know present it in so that’s what i love

46:27

about you know doing what i do when i can do it yeah absolutely in between doing all of

46:35

the things that you do yeah and copa bland that we’re in right

46:42

now [Laughter] yes exactly and it’s yeah

46:48

it’s very i’m really glad that we have the technology to connect um because yeah like it could be very

46:55

very lonely unless you’re an introvert then you’re i know i’m i’m loving this

47:05

but yeah but most of my family like we’re half here and we’re half in the u.s so you know even that is i’m thankful

47:13

for the family that i have here and then also i miss the family that you know i can’t see normally um but

47:19

yeah yeah it’s so different but you know i’m glad that we have technology to connect us yeah absolutely

47:27

yeah like this opportunity tonight it’s so wonderful to actually have a conversation with

47:33

someone where i could see their entire face [Laughter] and uh especially learning yeah

47:41

and learning about your craft and your technique and it’s just so wonderful to get to

47:48

know you because i’ve seen your product in the shop so much and every time i walk by

47:53

i’m like oh that’s a cute perfect that’s a cute pair of rings and i’m just like i’m always wanting to buy them but now

47:59

that i know more about your practice it’s so uh encouraging and i’m so excited for our bring it home

48:06

event and this uh december and january where we’ll be showcasing

48:12

uh your pieces as well and uh thank you again i’m really excited

48:17

yeah i’m super excited um thank you sarah yeah for sure

48:24

this is one of the best parts awesome well yeah totally and it makes

48:32

it like i oh sorry go ahead yeah you too thank you

48:39

oh no i was saying thank you for having me it was really it’s nice to like kind of take a break and talk about

48:44

something that’s not homeschool related

48:49

but yeah thank you so much absolutely and thank you all so much for joining us this evening

48:55

if you have any questions about eleni’s work that we have at the shop aga feel free to shoot us

49:00

over an email or check out the website and we would be happy to help thanks

49:06

everyone good night

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