SPAF Next Door: Micro-Macro

The Skeleton Park Arts Festival (SPAF) in Kingston, Ontario has once again turned the North Side of Kingston into a big, glorious, walkable art gallery. In 2020, when the pandemic forced arts festivals to shut down or to reimagine their focus, SPAF came up with the idea of having a series of outdoor arts installations, which were scattered outdoors throughout Kingston’s Skeleton Park area. In its second year, SPAF Next Door is brilliantly curated by Nicole Daniels and it “showcases the work of twenty-six artists based in Katarokwi/Kingston, taking shape in the form of sixteen eclectic installations, from painting and sculpture to performance art and augmented reality.” I’m delighted to have my work included. My piece, Micro-Macro, is installed at Central Public School on Sydenham Street. The purpose of my piece is to explore elements of the ecosystem of a tree in an Eastern Ontario forest, with a focus is on the less popular and understood categories that make up our natural environment.

Photos by Chris Miner.

AFLOAT: Avian Articulation

This spring, artist Todd Minicola and I made a big blue heron puppet for the Calliope Collective’s HYDRA :: A Story on Water. In early June, we had a test run. Our piece, Avian Articulation, will be further developed, but we’re pretty happy with what we’ve built so far. Thanks to Calliope Collective for once again organizing a spectacular event. Thanks to Randy deKliene Stimpson for the photos.

Click HERE for a video of this year’s test run. The film was made by Josh Lyon.

Shadow Play with the Limestone Elementary Virtual School

Yesterday, I wrapped up six weeks of working with five grade 1-2 classes in the Limestone Elementary Virtual School. The kids created shadow plays, which they presented during the last class. In their plays, the students told the story of their names. How did they get their name? What does it mean? They also talked about their families, their likes, their identities. During the six weeks, 60+ remarkable little people made shadow theatres and puppets, drew identity maps, created storyboards, learned how to animate (and organize!) puppets and rehearsed. The shows were inspiring - all of those brave kids proudly talking about their names, their families, their pets, their life stories. They had so many different experiences and yet also had so many points of connection to each other.

Sara Ahmed’s remarkable book, Being The Change, was the inspiration for the structure of the workshop. It’s a beautiful book and I think it’s essential reading for educators. It’s about the importance of truly seeing each other. It’s about giving kids the support and tools to understand and feel proud of who they are. Thanks to Equity Curriculum Consultant Rachael McDonald for introducing me to Ahmed’s book.

Thanks to the Limestone District School Board for bringing me on as an Artist-in-Residence, to Rachael McDonald for coordinating and supporting all of us artists working in the program, and thanks to the Ontario Arts Council for supporting the Limestone’s Artist-in-Residence program.

(Note: The photo here is of my daughter working on one of my shadow pieces, not of the workshops. I don’t post photos of other people’s kids!)

The Longest Drop

Is it just me, or is pandemic life busier than non-pandemic life? I feel like all that time where I’m not going anywhere should free up a good chunk of my life, but instead, days blend and I have to make a great effort to read, take leisurely walks, or update my website. I’ll update this site soon, but in the meantime, I’m going to try to catch up on posting news. So first up, The Longest Drop, a fun shadow puppet project I did with clarinetist and Dan School colleague Kornel Wolak. We created it for Ontario Culture Days. Pandemic problems: How do you collaborate during a pandemic? How do you puppeteer something alone that was intended for two? How do you adapt space? We adapted. Pandemic work seems to be all about adaptation. Ontario Culture Days was all online last fall, and Kornel and I were delighted to be part of it.

Jars: A Puppet Play

In between commissioned work and teaching, I’ve slowly been working away at my own puppetry piece, Jars: A puppet play. It’s a short piece about eating, control and art that has been taking shape in my weird head for a couple of years. Thanks to the Puppetmongers for recommending me for an Ontario Arts Council Theatre Creators Reserve grant to help me further develop Jars. Being recommended by the Puppetmongers is especially meaningful to me because not only are they puppet superstars, I used to watch their shows when I was a wee child in Toronto, which is when I first developed my love of puppetry.

Sea Creatures for A B Turtles

Back in the summer, Michael Hiron of AB Sea Turtles saw an octopus I made and asked me to make a sea turtle for his sea turtle conservation organization in Antigua, AB Sea Turtles. He also took away one of the octopuses. I was delighted to make these creatures. They are made from paper mâché, fabric, neoprene, and worbla.

Minotaur Holiday Window

I have great fun working on Minotaur’s window displays. This year, a wolf mama and her pups are howling carols to the moon in Minotaur’s holiday window 2020.

AFLOAT: A Workshop in Large-Scale Collaborative Art

I’m looking forward to making big art with the Calliope Collective and artists Dian Carlo, Krista Dalby, Tricia Knowles and the Kingston Community on Saturday, December 5th, 2020. Join us online for AFLOAT: A Workshop in Large-Scale Collaborative Art. Registration is free. Details can be found on Facebook.