Sointula Art Shed Interview, Virtual Residency, May 2020

1.  Can you tell me a bit about the history and location of the Art Shed?

 The Art Shed is located in both a shed and a cottage beside our home in downtown Sointula BC. The studio artists in residence work in is in the shed, and they stay in the cottage right next door. Our house is on the other side of the shed, so we have three buildings all in a row, quite close to the road, facing our backyard and the ocean, and the east side of northern Vancouver Island across from us. 

The cottage evidently used to be a float home, maybe used in logging camps. Then it was towed to land here on Malcolm Island, and eventually the former owners of our place towed it up to this property - I think to be a suite for one of their parents. Lots of people in town have stories of grandparents and friends who used to live in it.

I’m not sure when the Shed was built, but it looked like it was used to repair and store nets. That’s a big thing here, repairing fishing nets - it’s kind of beautiful to watch, though when I tried it, it was really tricky! But I love it aesthetically, and I love all the shades of blue and green the nets come in... did you know they are dyed to match the waters they will be fished in? So cool.

Then our house was evidently added on to a zillion times, but we heard the original house was a small farmhouse with an attic upstairs with a loom!

Home, Art Shed, Residency Cabin

 2. How did the idea of the Art Shed residency develop and how has it been as an endeavour?

  Tyler and I have both had a lot of really great “art world” type experiences in terms of us both having shown our work lots, and we’ve both built a lot of wonderful relationships that came from that world, etc...so we don’t really have any sour grapes in that regard, but I think we have both found ourselves really yearning for conversations and lives outside of that world, too, which can get a bit insular.

 So, it makes sense for us to live away from larger art centres, and it makes sense for us to find work that isn’t necessarily arts related...neither of us have ever been the sort of artists who make art inspired by the art world or art theory, you know? I have many friends who do, and I can enjoy and respect that art, but it’s not where we are at. So, stepping out a bit sideways from that world wasn’t really all that difficult for us in lots of ways.

 The great thing for us is that our residency brings a wide variety of art worlds to us...so we haven’t left that world behind, we’ve just created a new relationship with it. And then within our residency, we continue to prioritize working with a wide variety of artists from a wide variety of art worlds. We really didn’t want to bring any of the competitive vibe that can be felt in some art worlds up here with us, and I think one way to avoid that is to keep accepting artists at all stages of their careers, and artists who work in any and all kinds of ways.

 And honestly, in all these years of running our residency here, and the one we used to run in SK, it’s extremely rare that we pick up on any competitive vibes from the artists who come here. The vast majority of our experiences have been incredibly positive, and have resulted in true friendships that we both treasure. We are truly inspired by so much of what the artists who come here do...it’s just a total joy getting to know them and their art. 

 3.     What’s the philosophy or mission statement of the Art Shed?

 We really want to build relationships within this community and beyond. We are interested in the various dynamics that arise when artists from other places come and spend a month here interacting with this community, place, and landscape, and we love helping to facilitate those relationships. With our Window Gallery, for example, we show someone local for the first part of the month, and then we show the artist in residence (if they want). So, it’s important to us that we aren’t just highlighting interesting work by folks from elsewhere, but that we are also highlighting interesting work by folks from here.

 We dislike any art world vibes that are elitist, and strive to create a welcoming atmosphere where anyone making any sort of art can feel welcome and inspired. Over time a series of really compelling conversations have evolved...also, all the artists who come here connect to this place and these people differently, and that’s always fascinating to us. And the artists who come here sometimes make deep connections with people we are less close to, which is also great...it’s one of the many ways the residency hugely enriched our lives and adds greatly to our experience of living here.

 We truly feel honoured when artists apply to our residency, when we get their applications and see the thought and care they have put into the idea of coming here, and that they are going to find the time and money to make it happen really does feel like an honour. We understand what it’s like to be a struggling artist, and we don’t take it for granted, you know? We try to honour that back by being as generous as we can with our time and energy - we put a lot into the artists who come here, and it always feels very worth it. Honestly, we are both so grateful for our residency, it makes for a very interesting life!

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Sointula Art Shed, Window gallery

 4.     How would you describe the aesthetic of the Art Shed?

 With both the studio and cottage we wanted them to feel cozy and homey, so artists could feel right at home as soon as possible. The cottage in particular is full of things we like, and that we feel make a home feel cozy. We both like hand-made objects, and especially love all the incredible art that can be found at thrift stores - things that come with a bit of history, and a bit of a story. I guess it’s kind of a cozy, folksy, artsy grannie aesthetic.

 5.     What’s the most coveted/precious object in the Art Shed?

 We really love everything we put in the cottage - the books, the records, the VHS collection, the art, the cups, etc - but one of our very favorite things is a tambourine we got at our favourite thrift shop in SK - the Good Neighbour in Humboldt. This tambourine has some stories to tell. It is very banged up and has duct tape all over it, and a bunch of the metal tines were replaced by flattened metal Pilsner bottle caps. That resourcefulness and DIY spirit are totally the sort of thing Tyler and I love most. I remember when Tyler found that tambourine in The Good Neighbour - we couldn’t believe how lucky we were to find such an amazing thing.

Special things - tambourine from The Good Neighbour

 But almost every little thing in there has a story - like the floral towels we thrifted in SK, or the ceramic mugs we’ve thrifted and also bought from various artists, and the record collection is also very special...etc.

 5.     How has the Art Shed been described by previous residents?

 Cozy and charming, comfortable.

 6.     If the Art Shed had a theme song what would it be?

 I want to say the Littlest Hobo theme song Maybe Tomorrow because Tyler and I love it so, but the lyrics don’t fit, just the tone. Smog’s Let’s Move to the Country fits :)

 7.     If the Art Shed had an astrological sign what would it be?

 I don’t feel I know enough about astrology for this! My first thought was Cancer because I think of them as homey and into family, but I really don’t know...I can research astrology more and get back to you!

 8.     Has the Art Shed had any struggles or setbacks that it has had to overcome? If so, please explain.

 Well there are many ongoing repairs, and we had a major bathroom renovation recently that was kind of an emergency due to a leak and some structural issues. It’s been a major project from the get go - it was a very good deal because it needed some work. (We are hugely grateful for the deal the previous owners gave us - we could have never done this if they hadn’t.) I’m personally also very grateful that Tyler is so handy! So yeah, there are always repairs, big and little, to deal with, and we’ve had some financial setbacks in dealing with them, but overall, we are doing ok. Obviously, this pandemic is a big setback, but we have other jobs so we are doing ok and I know we are very lucky.

 9.      What is the color scheme/vibe of the Art Shed?

 There’s a lot of green in the main living area (we might shift that a bit eventually), but there are also some really nice bits with a soft pink, yellow, and a softer green. It’s kind of old fashioned in my mind, which I like. I prefer muted colours, but I also like the things like the quilt on the bed that’s so vibrant.

 10.  If you had to describe the Art Shed in one word, what would it be?

Cozy.

View from the Art Shed studio

Completed questionnaire of Scotty Avocado, What Scarf are You?

As a child, what colors where you drawn to?

Always been a green man. I had a lawn service as a kid. It was called “Up Your Grass lawn service. Yeah, always green. I grew up on 27 acres and I had to cut it. I dealt with grass as a career.  

What colors do you wear/like/surround yourself with as an adult?

I wear a lot of green, but I’m into values…grey to black too. Right now I’m into wood grain. Earth tones for sure. In the Bronx’s I’m called Scotty Avocado, in Detroit, Marquis Dues Guac and in LA I’m called Scotsradamus.

How do you like to wear a scarf?

Folded in half…thread the needle thing…like a high fashion scarf. Normally I don’t have one.

Do you have a story from your life that featured a significant textile?

I’ve had a history of really falling in love with fabrics that I use for clients and not having enough of it for myself. I selfishly try to save all the bits and maximize what I can do with the leftovers. I can think of this one fabric that was really crazy….my ex-girlfriend and I where staying at this friend’s house and there was this fabric on the pillows… with these construction guys all over it. This male pin up fabric that was called heavy equipment, and the guys on it where doing like construction stuff like carrying beams and they where all shirtless and we commented on the pillow cases and my friend said, yeah my mother in law made them for me and she’s a quilter but she was like, they do construction, you do construction….she made no connection with how gay these fabrics where. And she’s like, I would wear a dress out of it if I could, so my friend was like, if Scott can make you a dress out of it you can have it - cause I feel uncomfortable putting my face on them! So I decide to make her the dress but I needed more fabric to break it up with the waistband so I went to the garment district in New York trying to find like, a little bit of trim in a measuring tape print pattern. They didn’t have that but as I was looking around, this guy asks, what do you need it for? And I showed him a swatch of the construction fabric and he was like, do you like this? And then he says we have more. It was amazing. There was like a whole collection of these pinup fabrics in New York and Detroit and everyone loved them. I can’t tell you how much money I made making stuff off of this accidental pillow case thing. It was crazy. 

What is the climate like where you spend most of your time?

Seasonal. Hot in summer, cold in the winter. This is the first winter I’ve broken it up in a long time.

 Have you ever made any textiles? 

Yes. I was in experimental design class and I made this woven dress from 16mm film and 8X10 photos from Sunset Boulevard. It’s attribute to Norma Desmond. It’s my first non-traditional textile. Technically it’s woven really.

Are you allergic or have any sensitivity to any textile materials?

Never. NO way.

Please describe your personal style?

Retro moderno. I like modernizing certain vintage looks. I call it retro –sexual.

 What is your favorite article of clothing and why?

The Hamtramck jersey. Designed from old timey baseball. I made it laser cut the lettering and 3-D printed the buttons with my logo. It’ like the branded - Left Handed brand!

When you are upset and seeking comfort are there any textiles that you turn to?

Yes. If I’m really upset and bedridden I have a blanket that is crocheted that brings me great comfort. It’s from my grandmother, but she’s no longer with us. My sisters didn’t keep theirs but I did. She made one for each of us. It’s the softest.

What is your hair color, eye color?

Brown hair. Green eyes. Red, brown, calico beard.

 What is your astrological sign?

 Sagittarius and Capricorn. A Sagicorn. They are very contradictory sides.

 If you had to describe yourself in a word what would it be?

Right brained. Left-handed. A gregarious workaholic.

A resourceful human but an HR nightmare!

 Please list examples of music or audio content you listen to/reading or most recently listened to?

Jack White. Watching Die Antwoord videos… they have kept me pretty entertained for a good chunk of my time here.

 Are you currently in love?

 I am. But she doesn’t know. She’s married and I’m not a home wrecker. She’s my boot teacher, my shoe- ru.

 What is your strongest value?

 Trust for sure. That’s a Capricorn thing.

Completed questionnaire of Tim D. What scarf are you?

1. As a child, what colors where you drawn to and why? 

Blues and greens, probably has to do with the pacific northwest

2. What colors do you wear/like/surround yourself with as an adult?

Teal, Greys, Black, greens, blues,

3. How do you like to wear a scarf? Big and bulky? Wrapped many times? Loose and flowy...?

To be honest I don’t wear many scarfs but I would like to change that.

4. Please share a story from your life that featured a significant textile (Clothing, blanket, accessory, toy)

I used to have a flannel lined  sleeping bag that I would uses all the time (in the house) and on Sundays my dog and I would have sleeping bag Sundays parties where we both laid in it all day and watched football. 

5. What is the climate like where you spend most of your time? 

San Diego so 75 degrees all the time, but I want to get back to someplace with four seasons soon.

6. Have you ever made any textiles ?  (Knit, sewn, wove, etc.)

Not really, I sew as a means of mending clothes when needed. I have wanted to weave for years now but not really had the opportunity and am always in awe by textile artists and what can be done with the material.

7. Are you allergic or have any sensitivity to any textile materials? (Wool cotton, latex, etc.)

No

8. Please describe your personal style? 

Laid back, mostly jeans and t shirts, flannels/plaid usually some sort of hiking shoes, always sunglasses

9. What is your favorite article of clothing and why?

 I have a thin hoodie that I’ve had for 10 or so years, it is lighter so it works in most situations and is very comfortable and broken in, it has always reminded me of a surfer hoodie

10. When you seek comfort/safety are there any textiles that you turn to?

I have a crocheted blanket that is usually my go to when I am seeking comfort.   

11. What is your hair color, eye color?

 Brown hair, smoky piercing hazels eyes

12. What is your astrological sign/ myers briggs if you know it?

Leo, INFJ

13. If you had to describe yourself in a word what would it be?

MotherFucking Awesome

14. Please list examples of music or audio content you listen to or most recently listened to? (music, podcast, book)

 I listen to music all day almost every day so that’s a hard one. Some favs are, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Sam Cooke, The Last Waltz.

15. Are you currently in love?

YES!

16. What is your strongest value?

I am considerate, I am also humble and funny as fuck!!!

Completed questionnaire of Courtney M. What scarf are you?

1. As a child, what colors where you drawn to?

Blues and pinks, but I don’t remember why. I feel like the colors I loved then are so far from what I love now.

2. What colors do you wear/like/surround yourself with as an adult?

Always white, grey and black.

3. How do you like to wear a scarf? Do you wear scarves? Big and bulky? Wrapped many times? Loose and flowy?

I wear a smaller scarf or a gaiter. The smaller scarf I like is about 6” x maybe 3-4 feet. Wrapped a few times.

4. Please share a story from your life that featured a significant textile (Clothing, blanket, accessory, toy)

When I was in high school I worked on the crew for the drama department. On stage left was an extensive fly system, with a catwalk way above. At the end of the catwalk was a big closet called the costume room. And it was incredibly full, with clothes probably no one would ever wear. Anyway, I found a sweater there which I took and wore for 20 years. It was a soft wool, very pale warm grey, buttoned up, small patch pockets, and fit me closely but not tightly. The elbows wore out after a long time, and I patched them. But they wore out again and the sweater was done. I’m pretty sure I still have it in the back of my closet because it was the very best.

5. What is the climate like where you spend most of your time?

NC mountains. It’s a temperate rain forest, wet! Mold is an issue- when we get out our winter stuff it often needs a wash. Never gets too hot or extremely cold, but we do have a winter.

6. Have you ever made any textiles? (Knit, sewn, wove, etc.)

Yes! I’ve knit many hats, but I knit very tightly, and it hurts my shoulders, so I don’t do it much. I sew regularly (repairs, costumes, curtains recently). And I have never wove anything more than a pot holder, but for some time I have been looking for the right weaving class at Penland- I plan to make the time to try it. I would love to weave a wool rug, I think the pattern design would be loads of fun.

7. Are you allergic or have any sensitivity to any textile materials?

Wool that is rougher or scratchier sometimes irritates me.

8. Please describe your personal style?

I aspire for it to be simple and modern and utilitarian. Black shirt usually, jeans/carhartts/skirt with leggings, hoodie, not a lot of jewelry. Not very girly, but feminine. Every time I buy clothes that are colorful they sit in the closet. Sometimes I like red shoes.

9. What is your favorite article of clothing and why?

Hoodie. I have studio hoodies and dress hoodies.

10. When you are upset and seeking comfort are there any textiles that you turn to?

I have these grey Patagonia sweat pants that feel so soft, but I think I look good in.

11. What is your hair color, eye color?

Blonde moving to grey. Green eyes.

12. What is your astrological sign?

Taurus

13. If you had to describe yourself in a few words what would they be?

potter, mama, gardener, kind, hard working, cook.

14. Please list examples of music or audio content you listen to or most recently listened to? (music, podcast, book)

I do a couple news podcasts (the Daily, Up First), Reply All, 99 PI. Really I do a lot of podcasts. Books- recently finished the third Elena Ferrante book, Beastie Boys Book, and Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind. Listening to a lot of Beyonce, Lizzo, 90s hip hop.

15. Are you currently in love?

Yes, but it’s complicated and hard right now with my man. I believe it can be fixed. Deeply and easily in love with my work and kiddos.

16. What is your strongest value?

I’m pretty reliable - I show up and work hard.

Completed questionnaire of Jed B. What scarf are you?

1. What colors were you drawn to as a child?

My knee jerk response was green and blue, but I honestly don’t really know. There aren’t a lot of pictures of my childhood. The ones that do exist have me dressed in some combination of 80s suburbia and 70s hand me down hangover - so lots of orange, brown, and yellow with pops of red, blue, and green. There is a photo of me from when I was probably 6-7 where I am playing the harp in what looks like a blue velvet suit. So maybe when I got to choose I went with blue.

I know that once I got to high school my palate was pretty stable. Apparently my clothing was a daily mood ring. I once had a friend read me hard, saying that if I was wearing blue, it was a great day, green was good, but if I was wearing black, she would walk the other way to avoid me.

2. What colors do you wear as an adult?

Blue, without a doubt. Right now I am wearing dark blue jeans, a black shirt, a black jacket, and white converse. I’ve been simplifying my wardrobe into high quality neutrals that emphasize “quality” (which might just mean fit, texture, and depth). So lots of blues, blacks, greys, whites, taupes, browns, etc. And then pops of color (e.g., yellow pocket square, socks of some sort, and scarves).

3. How do you like to wear a scarf? Big and bulky? Wrapped many times? Loose and flowy?

My beloved scarves have all passed on, but all of them were worn:

- Looped around my neck once

- As a slip knot (?) where you pass both ends through the midpoint of the scarf to tie it close around your neck

- As a loose double loop, like the simple loop, but just without as much length on the side and not tight against your neck — so jaunty!

- Draped around my neck with no tie, but typically only when I am wearing a coat and my coat might feel lonely.

4. Please share a story from any time in your life that included a textile (Clothing, blanket, accessory)

This is not a traditional “textile”, but it is the one I have the most embodied and affective connections to. When I turned 8, my sister gave me a stuffed monkey. Instead of a box, he came in a metal cage and brought all the excitement of the zoo into my childhood. He was probably 8” tall, sat upright, and had a long tail. I quickly named him “Squeakers” and took him everywhere. Squeakers wasn’t really a comfort animal (I was probably too old for that), he was just my buddy and accompanied everywhere I went. A few years later, when my older brother were fighting outside, Squeakers ended up the victim of a tug of war. Before my brother realized what he had done, or where that ripping sound had come from, he was standing there with Squeaker’s tail in his hand. I don’t recall how I responded, but I am certain I was upset. Over the years, Squeakers didn't accompany me as often, but he never the less remained in my life. However, for some reason, Squeakers’s tail never got reattached.

I have visceral memories of how Squeakers’s skin aged over the subsequent decades — how the soft fur gave way to patches of scratchy plastic netting — and how this decay would prompt me to sit with the uneasy reality of how all things fade.

That uneasy feeling has not gone away — although Squeakers is in a box somewhere now and unable to prompt these encounters. However, uneasy realities are not limited to the present. They can haunt our pasts as well. A few years back (but at least 15 years from that jungled-childhood) during a sibling Christmas gift exchange, my brother said he had one extra gift for me. He handed me the unexpected addition, awkwardly waiting in silence. Inside was a stuffed monkey. My brother is not one for emotional declarations, but he uncomfortably explained that he felt bad about what had happened to Squeakers and simply wanted to make it up to me. What he didn't say, but I have thought about often, is how my sense of loss as a child was not mine alone. He held that loss as well, and was likely more impacted by it than I was. The new monkey doesn't have a name, but he sits on the top shelf in my home office. If I'm honest, I sometimes wonder what he would look like without a tail.

5. What is the climate like where you spend most of your time?

Colorado is a high desert. It is dry, but will get cold. We have major temperature swings (20-30 degree spans in a day is not uncommon). However, because the humidity is so low, the cold doesn’t really sink into your bones.

6. Have you ever made any textiles? (Knit, sewn, wove, etc.)

I was a little bit obsessed with crochet when I was in elementary school. However, I don’t think I got too far with it. I think I saw it as a kind of boondoggle crafting that didn’t have to be limited to Boy Scout summer camp. I never got much past creating the single strands — whether this was because I was more interested in friendship bracelets and keychains over blankets, or if this was just because the I couldn’t figure out how to go two dimensional with crochet, I don’t know.

There were a lot of these types of crafting activities that I wanted to do as a kid, but actually wasn’t able to for some basic gendered reasons. I have three older sisters who took sewing lessons when I was young, and I wasn’t allowed to take these classes. It could have been that I was just too young — after all, we all played the harp. Later on, in junior college, I had a job as a theatre tech, and I worked really hard to become the tailor’s assistant. Not that I was any good. The professor who was the head tailor was just totally awesome, and I wanted to hang out with her as much as possible. Building sets meant cutting wood while terrorized by a Bob Marley CD they would play on repeat. In the costume shop we listened to NPR, shared stories, and had deep conversations... oh, and I would make the most basic stitches on the sewing machine (which that professor might have had to fix).

By virtue of being married to Steven, I’ve also gotten my fair share as an adult. My favorite thing ATM are probably yarn ballers. How can you not love those?

7. Are you allergic or have any sensitivity to and any materials? (Wool cotton, latex, etc.)

Nope.

8. Please describe your personal style?

Clean, tailored, with casual and sporty elements. It is probably in the “tech-designer” wheelhouse, where I’m going to wear a suit, but never a tie; where I’ll give a presentation, but in an a softer, unstructured jacket. If I get really academic about it, it is probably dressed up casual, or casualed formal. I love to have outfits that simultanesouly perform contradictory ends of the spectrum, both in function and shape — so dress pants worn casually, sneakers worn formally, sports coats that function like cardigans, etc. (However, despite that academic snobbery, I don’t think I dress in a particularly unique way — I just try to do it very very well.

9. What is your favorite article of clothing and why?

It is either the suit I got married in or the moto jacket I am wearing right now. They were both selected (and in the case of the suit, tailored) with a lot of care, and I always look good in them regardless. I can rely on them to make me look good, and as a result feel good.

10. When you are upset and seeking comfort are there any textiles that you turn to?

Not really. Textiles often serve as most of a pre-emptive infrastructure — to prepare me — rather than to help me cope.

11. What is your hair color, eye color?

Hair: Redish, but not firey. (My grandma use to tell me I had the same hair as my grandpa — she could cut out a patch and every hair would be a slightly different color.)

Eyes: Green

12. What is your astrological sign?

Leo (and a Cancer Moon).

13. If you had to describe yourself in a word what would it be?

Hybrid

14. What are you currently listening too or most recently listened too? (music, podcast, book)

Music: Seasonal pop music, interesting remixes (I am a sucker for some of that experimental electronica stuff)

Podcasts: Not many at the moment, besides daily news stuff. Although I do have one guilty/cheesy podcast I listen to: Every morning as part of my wake up routine, Alexa plays a little “management tip” from Harvard Business Review. They are sometimes really silly and cheesy, but I like listening to them while brushing my teeth and thinking of at least one way I can be a better student advisor and director of my lab.

Books: I have to read TONS for work — so at night I have been reading YA novels because they don’t keep me up. I am almost done with Harry Potter again.

15. Are you currently in love?

Yup.

16. What is your strongest value?

“Holding space.” You might be familiar with this term, but in case you're not... Um, how do I explain this... This is a concept that comes out of (as far as I know) social work, psychology, nursing, and palliative care, but is very important to me. It refers to creating and holding a space for others to express themselves, especially when they wouldn’t have had that opportunity otherwise. It is kind of like active listening, it is kind of like what Carl Rogers called “unconditional positive regard”, but it is more than that for me. It is about honoring the unique importance of an individual and their life story such that you provide the space for them to share it, and in some cases, create it in a way that they haven’t been able to otherwise.

If my research and scholarship is an expression of my strongest value, then whether I am sitting with people who are mourning, allowing them to experience their grief, or whether I am listening to queer people’s coming out stories, or whether I am working to make technology more inclusive of the vast array of human experience, creating space for those experiences to exist, realized, actualized, and shared I think is the most human and humane act possible — and one I feel a strong obligation to enable.

To participate in this project I am seeking your consent to include information from this questionnaire and an image of yourself wearing the completed scarf for use on social media, websites, and potentially in printed material. You may include your name or not. Yes X No__

Name – Jed R. Brubaker

Date - 12/4/18

Completed questionnaire of Su-Feh. What scarf are you?

1. What colors where you drawn to as a child?
Vermillion

2. What colors do you wear as an adult?
Black, charcoal, greys, navy. Accented with bright colours - orange, yellow, royal blue, neon green

3. How do you like to wear a scarf?
Big, wrapped many times without it being too bulky. Pashmina-like

4. Please share a story from any time in your life that included a textile.
I lived with my grandparents as a child, and often felt like an orphan because my parents were not around. I was very attached to a pillow. Every year, my grandmother would replace all the pillows in the house. She would make pillows filled with kapok. But when it came to my pillow, she would use some of the kapok from the old pillow to fill the new pillow. And she would do this in front of me. This allowed me to transition to a new pillow every year without too much distress. 

5. What is the climate like where you spend most of your time?
Vancouver

6. Have you ever made any textiles? (Knit, sewn, wove, etc.)
I knit

7. Are you allergic or have any sensitivity to and any materials? (Wool cotton, latex, etc.)
No

8. Please describe your personal style?
I value structure and texture. I tend to like monochromatic compositions that reveal a certain silhouette, or layers of textures. And to throw these into relief with a spot of bright colour - a hat, socks or bag. I think I prefer my scarves to be part of the monochrome ensemble. 

I think my style is sort of classic with an edge. 

9. What is your favorite article of clothing and why?
Hmm. Currently, my raw denim sailor jeans from APC. Because I like how the fabric balances softness with that raw denim crispy structure. They are beautiful and they are comfortable. I can get my full range of motion in them.

10. When you are upset and seeking comfort are there any textiles that you turn to?
Cotton, linen.

11. What is your hair color, eye colour?
Hair - black

Eyes - dark brown

12. What is your astrological sign?
Scorpio

13. If you had to describe yourself in a few words what would they be?
Intense

14. What are you currently listening to or most recently listened to? (music, podcast, book)

Kendrick Lamar seems to be on a lot of my playlists

15. Are you currently in love?
Yes

16. What is your strongest value?
Be honest

How does art help us understand ourselves?

I was gifted this book and it's now become a bit of an obsession.

In Art as Therapy, Alain de Botton proposes, in a friendly and whimsical way, that art’s (making or appreciating) major purpose is to act as a therapeutic medium that soothes the psyche and supports the soul. He proposes a methodology in which art functions to help us remember, find hope, understand sorrow, rebalance ourselves, find self understanding, experience growth, and discover a deeper appreciation of our world.

He boldly comments on what counts as good art, what kind of art one should make, how it should be bought and sold, how it should be studied, and how it should be displayed. He imagines a gallery space in which rooms and floors are curated to address specific psychological needs; equipped with a therapist to act as gallery facilitator/host. The therapist’s roll being to aid visitors in discovering specific works that may address their personal therapeutic needs!

Being both therapist and artist, I find his pitch imaginative, intriguing, and inspiring.

Suggesting that art’s main function is to act as a therapeutic medium deeply resonates. My own art practice has often been about repetition as a form of catharsis. For me, the process of meditation through construction has provided me with a medium to manage my greatest longing, most difficult sorrows, and most anxious times.

It is in the act of hand building three hundred and twenty nine ceramic pots to count the passing days without my partner or stitching poems of love into hundreds of meters of fabric trim that I managed to work out my deepest concerns. For me art making has always been a therapeutic practice.

As a therapist I am deeply interested in the unique and different ways we think and feel about our world and our experiences. Being able to support people to find their own personal meaning, value, and insight is a creative collaboration in and of itself - the client being the artist and the process of therapy being the medium.

De Botton’s musings appeal to both my experience as therapeutic facilitator and artistic creator and got me thinking about a project I completed last summer. At an artist residency in Ontario, I brought my passion for art making and therapeutic interviewing together for an inquiry project.

I asked participants two questions. What were their thoughts on death, and if they would they like to be buried, cremated, or something else? In conjunction with these inquiry interviews I harvested raw clay from the area and set about to construct hand built funerary vessels for each participant. As I constructed the containers I reflected on what each person had shared and how he had talked about their life experiences.

Once I had completed the vessels, I then brought the participants to view the completed containers and talk about which one they felt representational of them. The project was the first time I had combined my interviewing skills with my practice of meditative construction and I was interested in how I these two processes affected each other.

In the spirit of the summer inquiry project and in celebration of Alain de Botton’s proposal I am excited to be organizing another collaborative inquiry project. I am are currently scouting artists to conduct interviews to answer the question: How does art help us understand ourselves? The project findings will be part of an ongoing web journal and with any luck the project will find it’s way into an exhibition space. Hit me up if your interested in being a part of the project.

UEA

Tada Ryvola is a partner and founder of the design/build company United Environment Architecture (UEA) based in Los Angeles, California. In an interview via Skype, Tada shared his thoughts on the therapeutic and spiritual significance of making things by hand.

What is your artistic process like?

Well, I work with a partner on almost all of my projects. We usually have a bunch of things that we are excited about or find fascinating. It could be a certain way of making something, a technique or a process - low-tech metal casting for example. We have played around with carpentry using methods we wanted to try out because we have liked how they looked or how they felt and we wanted to see what we could do with them. Often times a project becomes a venue where you can pull from what have you been reading or researching and try to apply it. 

It’s often a process of integrating things that are captivating or that you want to try out. There is an opportunity to put it into play….play around with it. A lot of creative work feels like playing around with things. Sometimes it goes somewhere and often times it doesn’t. 

The other part of making or designing things, which is parallel to this, is that the work is a response to someone’s needs. We are responding to a design problem that fulfills a certain function or helps someone live a certain way, or enhances their space in some way. People usually want an improvement in some area of their life and our job is to balance an understanding of creating something beautiful or useful with mundane concerns of cost and ability. So those are interconnected factors that all come together and ultimately affect what you’re working on and how you think about it. 

I think even the most menial jobs involve a little bit of creativity. Different jobs require more focus on creative solutions and those are correspondingly more interesting and more fun, more challenging. The creativity can then extend beyond efficiency and be a way of looking at things differently. In trying to come up with ways to make something work, feel better, and look better the hope is always that you can do something and achieve something amazing. That’s the hope though, I don’t know if that happens. That’s the aim and the challenge.

What does creating things mean to you?

It’s a process of being engaged in making something - that could be making anything. It could truly be anything. You’re focused on making something and it’s hard in the sense that you want something to happen - getting yourself to work on something isn’t hard - but trying to start with an idea and work with that and go through a process of trial and error and fuck everything up and see all the things that don’t work, that’s hard. You’re looking to see how things work and you don’t really know how it’s going to go. 

Trying to create something is interesting because you start with a set of assumptions about what something could be or how something should be and then you get to put those assumptions to the test by making something. A prototype, a sketch, whatever, you start seeing what it could mean as more than an idea when it takes on a physical form. When it starts to meet all the challenges using your own limited skills, and generally those assumptions about what is good or what is right, or what the answer is almost always change. It’s unpredictable and things work most beautifully when you’re most comfortable with the change. It’s always the hardest when you’re really attached to the assumptions. 

  The more you are ok with trying a bunch of things and feeling like it doesn’t matter if they don’t work because you are going to do more after that and you are going to be experimenting and learning the whole way along - that’s when you can end up in some amazingly surprising places.  

That’s what’s awesome about making things. I think that if there is any secret to creativity it’s letting your self do that. Consequently, I find that to be the most challenging thing because I think it’s very seductive to be attached to knowing how something is going to go. You often have a fantasy about how something is going to be and you want to see the fantasy through. Usually the cool shit doesn’t happen until you let go of it. Then it is allowed to become something else - that part is especially important in terms of the process when working collaboratively. 

You have your own personal assumptions and you have your partners assumptions and yours get challenged by how they view the same problem. It means that the things you believe might work, or the things that you find valuable might get torn apart because the person you’re working with will see it in a different way. That’s one of the biggest reasons I work with somebody - I know myself well enough that I know how valuable it is to have somebody tear that shit apart with me. It’s really important to be self critical, and having someone next to you that’s a bit less attached to the work because they didn’t make it directly; they can help you see it critically. I know if I didn’t have that, the work wouldn’t get anywhere near where it is. To have someone to help me look at what I’m doing and challenge the assumptions of how it should be is so important to me. It’s easy to be blind.

How does making things help you process things emotionally or help you psychologically?

I think the process of making things and having that being an involved part of your life is one of the biggest factors in well-being. I feel like it’s the biggest factor in my well-being. It’s funny, if I think about the other things that are important in terms of well-being, like ones connection to other people and I think that’s important, but if I know if I feel like I have a strong connection to what I’m doing in terms of what I’m making, I can relate to people differently. I know they probably feed each other, but if I am out of touch with making things or I’ve procrastinated or let too much bullshit get in the way, my ability to feel relaxed and healthy around other people diminishes. I know I derive the greatest amount of meaning in my life in trying to relate to making things. It’s a big motivator. I think the biggest one. 

I think making things, literally making anything is therapeutic. The process of putting effort into something and then seeing a result, I don’t mean a finished thing, but you’re working on something and it’s happening, and you’re not just thinking - you’re moving things around, you’re pushing material around, you’re hacking at something, you’re ripping something apart - that’s therapeutic. 

You’re somehow taking your energy and you’re molding something with it and you have a record of that in someway. I think a lot of people experience this and it’s very satisfying - emotionally satisfying. I do a lot of work with my hands and some work that isn’t with my hands….by that I mean some work is on the computer and some is working with tools and physical materials. I know there is a difference in satisfaction working in those two ways. Being able to change how something is in the world, just with your hands, directly physically and instantly - you’re carving wood or you’re sawing something and there is something so viscerally pleasurable about that. You can get totally lost in it. I feel like it’s really important to me. It’s really vital to me. 

I think a lot of people that do design work end up in front of the computer - almost exclusively and I know I can’t do that. I know that a lot of the satisfaction that comes from working with my hands, you can’t get working in front of the computer. At this point in my life emotionally or psychologically, I know I get so much of a hit from working with my hands. It’s such an important hit. I don’t know if I can go without that. It’s too satisfying to forgo. It’s so valuable for me to create things in the world that you can see, feel, touch, and smell. It’s really satisfying. Out of all my attachments I feel like that’s the most important one. I see it as directly attached to some kind of mental well-being. Ultimately I think there is a huge spiritual significance to being able to do that kind of work.

In what way is it spiritually significant?

I think the process of making something and being in touch with how a material feels or works together…or how that thing can then be an object in the world that you’re sharing with people becomes invested with energy and that energy is going towards making something that is in peoples lives and your own I think that has spiritual significance. At this point in my life it’s maybe the only way that I have some kind of understanding of what a spiritual realm could be.

I see making things is a way of being connected with people. It’s a way of being connected with ways of doing things that are bigger than myself. When I’m most excited about doing something in a certain way or trying a certain technique I feel like I’m in touch with a long line of people doing the same thing. 

I am connected to others that have worked with the same materials, the same processes or practices. A lot of the work itself is about learning how people have done things in the past. Learning how those materials have been handled or trying to gain some kind of respect for what you’re trying to achieve. That doesn’t mean you have to copy things or do them in ways that people tell you, but if you’re picking up a saw or trying to melt metal you’re one of millions of people that have done that and you’re part of a tradition of making things for people - people making things for each other. 

If you’re fortunate enough to make those things useful, meaningful for others, or even beautiful, then I think that’s really special. I think it’s profoundly special. I think it’s a total driving impulse. I don’t think it’s a given that you can do that or that I can do that. I don’t know how well I do those things, but I know I’m motivated by the possibility that I can. 

There is also the recognition that the materials that I work with are really beautiful. Whether it’s metal or wood, all of those things have their own properties, they feel a certain way, and they smell a certain way. Touching them and looking at them and working with them is such a sensual process. As you’re changing how something looks and works, you’re being totally affected by it sensually - I know I can get totally lost in that. There is so much going on in that experience. As you work the material changes and you watch that change happen and that change is directly in proportion to what your doing, there is no given how that’s going to go - you can just see that unfolding before you as you affect it – and that’s really special I think. 

More of UEA's work can be found here

Tasha Hitchon

A sculpture and mixed media artist, Tasha Hitchon met with me to discuss how her art practice helps her to explore the surreal, transcend struggle, and find a voice.  

Tell me about your creative practice?

For work that I have shown in galleries or put out into the world – it starts with a vision.  I have a vision and it can come to me when I’m awake… or while I’m walking or just staring at a wall. Sometimes it comes from an extremely vivid dream. It becomes all I can think about and I feel this great urge to create something. It’s like a seed that’s planted and it’s growing inside of me and I have to figure out how to get it out. The only exception is when I make art in an art therapy context. That work is created spontaneously and very different.

How do you realize the vision?

I don’t sketch I just have the images in my head and my hands just start to make something…it doesn’t really work for me to put it down on paper beforehand. I only sketched in art school…when it was mandatory!  I would sketch because I had too and I would do it after the work was created. I use whatever material speaks to me to realize the vision…it could be metal, stone, felt, clay, paper, or ink. Mainly I ‘m propelled by a strong need to get it out of my body. It feels like I am giving birth to something…I haven’t had a child, but I assume it’s a similar feeling.

What do you gain from your creative practice?

Resolution. There is a beginning and an end…a type of completion takes place and I find relief in that. Making the work is like a dream. I get into an altered state, obsessed with the completion and resolve of the project. It’s all that I can think about. In that state I often feel like I don’t have much control over the vision or the project. It’s like it’s coming through me. It’s a chance to take it into reality and share it with the world.

What’s the purpose of art making for you?

It’s an opportunity to share my story and have a voice. It’s a place where I know I have a voice. I want people to experience it and I encourage people to touch it or sit with it. Some of my sculpture projects or installations have included audio…when people come to the gallery and sit and listen they can really experience it as a story that repeats. I want to create an experience for people and I want people to allow themselves to have an experience with the work. 

How does your art practice help you understand yourself?

I feel like I’m stronger because of it. Like I’m part of this community and world, and that what I have to say and feel may be important. Often in my work there is conflict or an issue and the process helps me come to a place of understanding. I can get things out through that process. My work comes from such an emotional place and is really about that sense of resolve. When it’s finished things feel as though they make sense. To complete the work is to see the whole picture and understand my own puzzle. It often feels like a personal epiphany and I get a physical sense of change.  There’s a visceral relief. Sometimes it’s exciting to see that completion of thought. I never feel attached to my pieces afterwards....it’s like we've worked together, created something, and now we can go our separate ways. The journey is over.

How does art therapy help you?

I feel like it’s a different type of healing. The spontaneous artwork I create in art therapy opens up a different part of my subconscious. I think scarier more raw themes come out because I don’t have the time to edit or step back and think about it. Stuff comes up from deeper parts of my self ...it’s illuminating because you didn’t even know that it where there. The process and outcome is specifically about working through personal struggle and it’s a safe place for that exploration. It provides me with a voice for the really difficult stuff.  Often times I don’t even remember picking up the brush - I am in a state of madness that’s out of my control, or a kind of like a meditative state. What’s being made feels outside of itself- it’s like a collection of moments built up inside of me and then I let them go through the process. There is fear about what others think or how it will be understood. It’s purely for myself. For my own therapeutic healing. I have tried to incorporate some of the drawings from the art therapy into my formal art practice but they are so different that I haven’t figured out how to meld them together.

Jeffry Mitchell

On a rainy evening in Seattle, after a thoroughly decadent afternoon, Seattle artist Jeffry Mitchell discussed how his unique process of creating, giving, and exchange has brought him a deep sense of belonging, security, and peace. 

Describe what you do?

Well, I say I make work that comes from decorative and folk traditions…or that is in line with that. I make objects that are really personal and autobiographical or about my relationships with people. I think of the things I make as gifts, or occasion things, or things that commemorate - which ceramics does so well. I see it as a kind of currency - like something to trade…for diplomatic reasons, for loving reasons, for survival…or just for trade. Often times it’s not for money, not with my work so much, I trade or give a gift to ingratiate myself or to create a stronger friendship…I hope for that kind of thing. Or I hope that people will think, you know, good of me… that kind of thing. For as little money power that I have, I think I have a different form of currency. I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way until later in my life, but that’s what that was. That’s something I could do with meager means, and it’s created a kind of rich scene, with wonderful friends. It’s good. Actually I think it’s kind of rad…I never thought of it as a ‘fuck the man’ kind of thing, but it is kind of a subversive way of getting around some of the more traditional expectations for a man my age.

Do you say you’re a ceramicist?

No. I make ceramics and I make drawings and I say I’m an artist - which was a hard thing to get to… I just made that decision in ‘82 or ’83, when I was in Japan. I was spending all my free time making art - making work on Japanese paper with ink and I thought; the only person that needs to decide they are an artist, is the artist. You can get an art degree and all that stuff, but it’s up to the artist to claim it. It seems daunting but in fact I think it’s not that big a risk. You really are an artist if you say you are. And then you can say whether or not you’re any good, but that’s a judgment. So I say I’m an artist. I don’t say I’m a craftsperson, I don’t say that I’m a potter; I do call myself an artist. It is nice to call yourself an artist because then you don’t have to dance around it. In my culture, of working class America, it’s not well understood what an artist is….it’s uhmm “I kind of might know what that means? Or it’s “Picasso or Michelangelo” - something really big out there in the world. It’s really interesting to think about who gives you permission to claim it. 

I mainly make figurines, which is a kind of sculpture to me. I think the most interesting thing about my stuff is how the figures interact with something else. I think that when I make a figure it gains it’s meaning by comparison…comparing it to something else that that’s very familiar…so whatever the difference is between figurines that are from your life - say public sculpture or an equestrian monumental thing or a Victorian domestic decorative type thing or something from the European tradition, in the church or in the civic realm - when you see my things meaning comes through it’s particular difference from those things that had meaning for you from the world. In my mind at least, they all meld into one thing… specifically if they are of a certain ilk.

Do you consciously draw from those things?

Yeah, sure I do, I look at them…look at all these books! Actually, what I’m drawing from are precedents from that kind of work, early 20th century late 19th century, sort of mass produced things that I saw in my grandparents house that where copying from other precedents that might have been copying some other precedents. 

The motifs that you pick are autobiographical symbols?

Yes, but it’s not that conscious -I don’t say I going to make a bunch of autobiographical symbols and I’m choosing the elephant – it’s just a default or an unconscious automatic thing. I helplessly make the same thing over and over. I choose it because that’s the one that seems good to me. Or I don’t know what else to do, so that’s the one that is a known comfort.

Is it soothing?

Yeah, it is soothing. And then it’s sometimes detestable because you see your self repeating things and you think, ohh fuck, boring or lame or something, I’m so predictable! It’s funny, when you review things that you have done, that you’re aware of, you hold in your mind a memory of what that thing is and what those qualities are. When I encounter the work again - at first I’m kind of delighted or tickled that someone would care about this thing and then I think - oh that’s better than I remember it or oh that’s not so good - most of the time the memory I have of it is different than how it is.

Evaluation always comes into play. I think when you’re making something you want to pump it full or add value to it. I do think there is rumination, there’s reflection, there’s working out ethos, and asking yourself, what do you care about? Then you experiment and test things and you evaluate and there is also this process of just dancing or exercising where you do not evaluate. What I like is that…because art is conserved, not always but sometimes, you can have an experience with a work of art over many years in your life. Or you can encounter something that suddenly becomes valued or the center of attention for the art world or the curatorial world or museum world or something and you see these things that are objects that you’re not aware of but then someone pulls it into the light. And then you’re like whoa. It’s like a little chip of hope being put out into the universe and it is possible that it gets actualized. I guess I’m always searching for some kind of value when I make things.

How does it help you emotionally or psychologically?

It’s therapeutic. Mainly because you can encounter your nature again and again and again and actually bring it back to what you can do to change it…and not do the externalizing or pinning blame on others…it’s a great practice for that. For that it’s really valuable. If you work at it and are honest…the world is unfair. I get that and not everyone is dealt the same hand and not everyone will achieve wealth and fame and stuff, but I do think, at least in my experience, and I’m not wealthy or famous, but I have had this chance to do the same things or repeat habitual behavior and I can really see it! Yet again I have another deadline, and yet again I’m procrastinating, or yet again I’m trying to please somebody, or yet again I’m jealous of so and so…all those things that make life miserable. You know what I mean? It gives you a chance to own them and the more you own them, I think, the more it’s possible to change and the more you change your behavior, do to your own will, the more you can own that success of making a change…success is a difficult word, but you can feel an agency in your own life – and that’s therapeutic.  

I think it’s worrisome sometimes because there’s so little security in it, but I also think it’s great! You learn a lot and meet great people that build their own lives and that’s an interesting crowd to hang with. You build your own life and you make those kinds of decisions and you don’t expect to make money, you might have ambition, but you don’t expect to make money…you get what I’m saying? It’s a good crowd to hang with, even though there is jealousy and competition or really strong objections to certain works, I don’t think I could cut it in other worlds. I do have the metal to spend time alone and ruminate and make things and even process my own issues and traumas and fears and things like that. I wouldn’t characterize myself as a confidant person, but I think being an artist brought me to a place of peace and it’s been through that rumination and that processing of fears that brought me there.

What does the actual making process do for you?

I know that when I work all day, with actual making and not just thinking…even though there is value in doing nothing and stomping around the studio and doing sort of peripheral work - it gives you a satisfaction that you did your day’s work. I still have that work ethic or model in me that thinks - it’s nice to have a product! I think it’s important to spend time making stuff in the presence of myself…I think it’s a good idea to spend a lot of time with your work with no expectation or explanation or need to sell it, you know what I mean? I make a lot of stuff and I do think it’s a good thing or a healthy thing and I’m proud of that. I do have a strong binary Christian imprint where things are evaluated as better or worse, good or bad…which I would like to move away from and maybe I have? The failure is essential and crucial and part of the whole thing. But even calling it failure and success seems dubious. I think you can’t be conclusive and certain about this kind of thing, but as activities go it’s rich. 

As a way to spend your days and use your body and your mental or spiritual energy, it’s pretty good. The rewards are good you know… the exchange. It just seems healthy. Specifically to my karmic issues of value and worth, and place in the world, and contribution. I can really see something that’s uniquely mine moving into the world and I can own that and I can reap the psychic benefit of other people's evaluation of that kind of thing… and that’s been very therapeutic… if your uncertain of your place in the world and your own value or sense of contribution… art making seems good. 

More of Jeffry's work can be found here.