Newsletter 3—may 2025
Tansi, Hello, Oh Hi,
Oi, it’s been a minute. So much has happened! I planned on sending out a newsletter in January; and I was so excited to, I love new years. I love taking a look back and reorganizing things, setting intentions for the year ahead and decluttering but that fell through, then I planned one for February, but it was a no go. I was in heavy production, organizing, grant writing, and accounting in March and April so I didn't even try.
So here we are… welcome.
THE PERSONAL
Life is a lot at the moment. I am trying my best to slow down, which is extremely hard for me to do because I am such an anxious person and that anxiety drives me; sometimes right into a wall. The last few months, January to April, have been so intense. Throughout the holidays, I’m talking Christmas and New Years, the family and I were ping ponging sicknesses between each other. This lasted well into March. We have had some reprieve in the last month where everyone seems to be relatively healthy, and then last week Shy came home with a cold and now we all have it. I honestly have no idea how parents make it through the first five years of any child's life with a full time job that’s outside of the home. Having kids is tough. This world is not built for us.
Image of Shy and Marrow being the cutest ever!
Back in October I knew I needed to put serious time in in the studio for the production of we tend to care a solo exhibition curated by Franchesca Hebert-Spense, opening at the end of July in my home territory at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, so we hired Connie, a nanny for two to three days a week to watch Marrow during the day so I could spend solid time in the studio. We love her, she used to watch Shy when he was a babe. She’s super fun and down to earth, and she’s so good with kids. We said farewell to regular help at the end of April. So for the summer months I will be parenting and trying to work in the early mornings and during nap times.
Some exciting family stuff, Marrow started walking. It’s been fun watching him stumble around following Shy. He is getting into absolutely everything. He is obsessed with our Roborock vacuum, which we lovingly named Stallone. He keeps climbing on top of it and stomping on it. This week I managed to make Stallone a home (a wooden box that protects him) during Marrow’s nap time. A huge feat considering I assembled it wrong at first, had to hammer it apart, rip out all the nails, and put it back together the correct way… Honestly the only thing holding me back from doing more woodwork is my inability to pay attention to measurements. Shy is talking more and more, telling stories. The stuff that comes out of his mouth is perfection. He makes us laugh on a regular basis. Though he has been super challenging with his 4 year old energy- protesting absolutely everything and having big meltdowns. We have been trying really hard to set clear boundaries for him, letting him know that some behaviour is not ok and can hurt people. The other day he was throwing something he shouldn't be. I mentioned he needed to stop because he could hurt someone, namely Marrow because he was closest to him. He threw it again. So I told him clearly “If you throw it again, I will have to take it away for the rest of the day”. He looked at me and said “but I’ll catch up to you and take it back… I’m super fast. I don't have socks on” - his little eyebrows raised and he nodded. Then he looked down at his feet, sure enough his socks were off.
HIghlights from the past few months (january - april)
January
Ascending Horizons opened January 30th at McMaster Museum of Art. My mom, Marrow and I travelled to Hamilton, ON, for the opening. It was so lovely to meet the other artists and curators in person, I was truly excited to spend time with everyone and celebrate. However as soon as we touched down Marrow threw up, all over me and into the aisle of the airplane. Throughout the next three days he was off and on sick, it was so intense trying to navigate what to include him in and what to leave him out of, sometimes he seemed completely fine, the next second he was throwing up and super lethargic. I am so thankful to my mom for being able to help out and join us, the curators for understanding that I needed to bring a support person and being so caring and flexible (even driving Marrow and I back to the hotel when he was sick). Reminder, never travel with kids unless you can stay at a place with a washer and dryer, it was a life saver!
I have three works that are included in this exhibition; The Pull of the Moon, she contains a world, and a blanket to build worlds. These new works are part of a growing series exploring world-building through collaboration. The photo-based artists and I worked closely to develop each piece in the series. Our collaboration draws on Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s 2021 text A Short History of the Blockade, in which Simpson relates beaver dams to activist blockades as methods for disrupting capital and colonial state agendas. The use of beaver fur is inspired by this keystone relative who builds dams to build worlds and supports a multitude of life forms. The project honours traditional mark making (on the body and on/with the land) and celebrates seasons and cycles (body and land).
You can see more information here → McMaster Museum of Art website
February
I got my first public art commission and travelled to Edmonton to visit with some folks and the site, as well as conduct some research. It was my second time away from my kids, I spent the week trying to move slower and do some research. Though there is this thing that happens when I am away- it’s a mix of frantic energy to get stuff done, with a long list of to dos, mixed with a huge sense of urgency to rest, sleep, and regenerate.
Marrow started walking when I was away- super sad I missed his first steps.
I had to catch the red eye for my flight back east, so I packed up early on my last day in Edmonton and drove to Elk Island. I spent some time driving around looking for bison; the usual spots ‘Bison Loop’ and the main drag, but with no luck. So I decided to go for a hike. I spent the next three hours along the ‘Hayburger’ trail where I saw some bison in the distance. The walk proved to be incredibly inspiring for the public art commission I was dreaming up. During the walk some kinks were ironed out and the concepts I was thinking through grew clearer.
Here are some images from my hike at Elk Island Park.
March
Fil conducteur opening at FOFA. I travelled solo to Montreal for four days for the opening and to do an artist talk at Concordia where I spoke about my grass research and the upcoming exhibition we tend to care. A huge highlight was spending time with Fran (Franchesca Hebert-Spense), we shared an apartment style hotel. We were able to catch up in person, watch a movie (Night Bitch, highly recommend, hoping to read the book), spend time with Katherine Boyer (a mutual friend and colleague), and work in a shopping trip. Fun fact, the first time I hung out with Kath, outside of an exhibition, was a random DM where I told her I was going to be in Edmonton and she happened to be in Edmonton as well with Judy Anderson. They invited me to meet them at the West Edmonton Mall. I had admired both of their art practices and I was so nervous to spend time with them in person. It ‘s still one of my favourite memories, and since Kath, Judy and I have gone on many shopping trips.
Photo taken by Josh Jensen, Fil conducteur at FOFA in Montreal, QC, 2025. A cute little photo of us (you can only see my hand) adding to the bingo dabber wall.
You can see more information here → FOFA Gallery Website
When I was in Montreal I managed to finish a book! A very big feat for me at this moment in my life. Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr, highly recommended.
I started a new book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein, and have been picking away at it (usually I am reading 5-10 books at a time, picking them up reading 3 pages then putting them aside, just to pick up a different book the next day. However I have been reading this book every night before bed, and I am super proud of that). I am learning a lot from it. It speaks to the moment we are living in, how we are inundated with misinformation, how misinformation is creating health crises (Klein speaks about Covid, however I think we can look at the uptick in Measles globally and in North America), and how the right co-ops language and contexts and warps them into skewed narratives to suit their agenda.
April
I travelled to Fredericton, NB, to host a three day workshop at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design for the Wabinaki program. It was a lovely time spending time learning and sharing with students; it’s super hard being Indigenous students in colonial institutions.
You can see more information here → ARTSPLACE Gallery website
Embedded Histories opened at ARTSPLACE in Annapolis Royal, NS, April 5. The artists: April Hickox, Jennifer Long, Anna Heywood-Jones, and myself joined curator Ursula Handleigh for a casual conversation about our work and the exhibition. It was so lovely joining these amazing artists for this discussion. We all spoke about care work, in various forms, and how plant life was either utilized, embraced, or needed to get through difficult times.
This is a screenshot, taken by Ursula Handleigh, during our discussion. Slowly during the course of this two hour talk my kids started to join us from their naps. This is Shy coming down for some post-nap snuggles.
Most of March and April was spent frantically doing accounting in Freshbooks, getting super frustrated with the platform and then switching everything over to Quickbooks. Honestly, accounting is the bane of my existence, it takes so much mental energy and causes so much anxiety and discomfort, I absolutely hate it. So now I am trying to do it more often so I can get comfortable with it and keep up to date, ultimately with the hopes to spend less time and energy on it.
Since reaching my May 1st deadline (which included all this travel, the first mock-up for the public art commission, completing all work for we tend to care, and submitting my 2024 taxes and HST/GST first quarter filings) I have been spending more time outside with Marrow and Shy, and trying to get my garden poppin’ with more perennials, in between the bulbs that survived the winter, and some annuals. The family and I are gearing up for travel out west to work on The Origin of the World series, which I hope to share more of in the coming months.
in the next issue
Now that you are mostly up to date, I plan on sharing more about we tend to care, my upcoming solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, opening July 31, 2025. I really want to share some process shots and some research tid-bits. I’ll probably share more about my garden too.
Current exhibitions:
Embedded Histories
Curated by Ursula Handleigh
Artists: Carrie Allison, April Hickox, Anna Heywood-Jones, and Jennifer Long
April 5 - May 24 2025
https://www.arcac.ca/
Fil conducteur - FOFA Gallery
Curated by: Nicole Burisch and Nicole Williams
Artists: Carrie Allison, Katherine Boyer, Bev Koski, Jean Marshall, Nico Williams
FOFA Gallery, Montreal, QC
March 17 - May 23, 2025
https://www.concordia.ca/finearts/about/galleries-venues/fofa-gallery/exhibitions/2025/fil-conducteur.html
Ascending Horizons
Curated by: Alex Jacobs-Blum and Kim Anderson
Artists: KC Adams, Carrie Allison, Judy Anderson, Hannah Claus, Elizabeth Doxtater, Charlene Vickers, and Marie Watt
McMaster Art Gallery, Hamilton, ON
January 28 - June 20, 2025
https://museum.mcmaster.ca/exhibition/ascending-horizons/
upcoming exhibitions
We Tend to Care
Curated by Franchesca Hebert-Spence
Solo Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie
Grande Prairie, Alberta
July 31, 2025 - November 23, 2025