So there is going to be a really cool arts and culture festival taking place this weekend – it’s free and the schedule looks really good with some really amazing Aboriginal artists appearing on panels and highlighting their art. I am very humbled to have a few of my photographs as a part of one of the events.

Check it out and spread the word!

Here is some information about this weekends events:

A Winter Village: Indigenous Arts and Culture Festival

Circadia Indigena, First Peoples’ Art and Performance in Canada’s National Capital, is pleased to announce its first annual public event: A Winter Village: Indigenous Arts and Culture Festival Free and open to all.

This weekend arts festival takes place within the traditional season of storytelling, and occurs during the beginning and renewal of the year’s ceremonial cycle. This gathering will offer exceptional multidisciplinary arts and cultural programming, and will be a platform for celebrating Indigenous winter culture by highlighting the storytelling traditions of First Nations’, Inuit and Métis Peoples. Indigenous storytelling has many forms; Creation stories, history, visions, teachings, news, ceremony, messages, songs, and many more. This gathering will draw on these forms and showcase them through Elders, cultural presenters, and artists in a presentation and workshop format. The gathering will be a space for the sharing of Indigenous knowledge through storytelling, cultural presentations and performances by First Peoples’ artists.

This year we will gather the artists together across three different themes within the Winter Village: (1) The time of year tells us it is the beginning and renewal of the ceremonial cycle, we will share the ways First Peoples’ mark this time with celebration and ceremony. (2) We will highlight our storytelling traditions within this traditional “storytelling time” of the winter cycle. (3) And we will share the beauty of the winter cultures of First Nation’s, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Everyone is welcome to come and celebrate First Peoples’ winter culture through the artistic traditions of First Nations’, Inuit and Métis artists presenting dance, theatre, visual arts, storytelling, film and music. Friday, February 22nd, 6:30 to 9 pm. Saturday, February 23rd, 1 to 9 pm. Sunday, February 24th, 1 to 3:30 pm. Richelieu-Vanier Community Centre, 300 Des Pères-Blancs Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario

See https://www.facebook.com/pages/Circadia-Indigena/407518199307286 for more info.

So I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from blogging, not that I haven’t been doing things but just got busy with life.

I have been getting pieces together for various local shows and working on new pieces.

I have been busy trying to complete vamps for Christi Belcourts “Walking with our Sisters” project. This is going to be a Commemorative Art Installation for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of Canada. I’ve completed one pair of beaded and silkscreened vamps (I will do a separate entry on my vamps once they are all completed). And I’ve been applying for some different shows taking place in 2013.

I also completed a recent a second birch bark basket – again, I will post photos in a separate entry.

Anyhow, I am going to try and be better about sharing my ongoing projects.

Happy 2013! A year of changes and excitement!

So the last few weeks I’ve been busy working on some new art pieces and photographs for a few art shows coming up. The first one this month is a part of Westfest, the exhibit is “Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art”. I’ve completed 2 new silkscreen and beadwork pieces.

The silkscreen I created is based on the tree in this Brownie photograph. I love the way the branches bend and twist.

My plan was to bead on the leaves to this tree. So using black cloth I silkscreened 2 trees in gold and on one tree I used green beads to create the earthly tree and one in gold to create the sky tree. (This is a hipstamatic picture I took while beading the earthly tree.)

Here is the backgrounder for the event:

WESTFEST Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art

At the heart of Aboriginal art is a spiritual legacy from cultures built on the worldview that all is sacred and we are all relations. First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists will participate in the exhibit Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art at All Saints’ Anglican Church during Westfest Festival Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10, 2012. The exhibit brings together art that highlights the relationship between human beings and the natural world. The artwork will be on display with artists present in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, 347 Richmond Road, Ottawa, Ontario.

Join First Nations, Inuit and Metis artists:

· Emily Brascoupe-Hoefler
· Heather Campbell
· Jaime Koebel
· Kirk Brant
· Simon Brascoupé

Spiritual Legacy: Celebrate Aboriginal Art
June 9 and 10, 2012

· Saturday 9am to 6pm
· Sunday 12pm to 6pm

Location: All Saints’ Anglican Church’s Chapel, 347 Richmond Road, Ottawa, Ontario, K2A 0E7.

Westfest is a free art festival!

Westfest is a party like no other! Each year more than 100,000 people attend Westfest during our outdoor, three day celebration of Canadian art and culture.

As a FREE multidisciplinary art festival dedicated to showcasing Canadian artists and their work in an accessible and inclusive setting, Westfest fills 14 city blocks with a variety of artistic disciplines, such as music, contemporary dance, visual art, media art, performance art, spoken word, poetry and fiction readings, Aboriginal art forms, children’s entertainment, buskers, street performers, and much more.

http://westfest.ca/

So I saw this cool thing on a friend’s facebook page, Moss Graffiti. What is Moss Graffiti? It’s living art, sometimes called environmental art. I’m thinking this may be a spring time project for me…

Visit these links for more information:

http://www.subsoloart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Graffiti-com-Musgo-13.jpg

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/moss-grass-graffiti/2147?image=16

This year marks the 11th annual New Sun Conference, and like for the last 11 years, I was there. The New Sun Conference has been a part of my year for a while now and always is inspiring to me. Although I’m no longer a university student, I do still appreciate learning about other Aboriginal artists and broadening my horizons.

Last year’s conference was shortly after some health problems, it was good to get back to something familiar and invigorating. It was the 10th annual conference and during the lunch time performance a piece of Eagle down landed close by. We were told that this down was sacred and it was “lucky” for it to land on us. I put this little piece of down in a container which I keep with the drops I use to treat my eye disease. I also have a small shell that I got as a gift at Women’s World last summer. They remind me of good memories and to stay positive. It’s hard to believe a year has gone by but I’m definitely ready to start this new year!

This year’s conference was amazing, every year it seems to out do itself, it always makes me think and inspires me. That’s not to say that the topics are always easy, in fact, this year many of the topics were challenging. This year touched on so many things: about the role of women, murdered and missing Aboriginal women, reality, technology, health issues, about our communities, abuse, violence, equality, identity, stereotypes but, also, about hope and evolution. KC Adams started the morning off with a talk about cyborg hybrids and identity. I really appreciated how she chooses to appreciate her cultures. I have a similar cultural background and being bi-racial is definitely about balance and recognizing and appreciating where you come from and how that shapes who you are. I love her concept of the cyborg hybrid and creating identity that is free of racism and stereotypes.

Watching the clip from “Finding Dawn”, produced by Christine Welsh, was especially hard. This week I went to a talk with the aunt of another missing Aboriginal girl. Hearing her first hand account of what her family had gone through was heartbreaking. As was watching Ramona Wilson’s family honor her after she was murdered on the Highway of Tears. Where did these women go? Then John Kim Bell reminded us about our successes. I still remember going to my first Aboriginal Achievement Awards in Ottawa as a young girl – how excited I was to learn about all those receiving awards, seeing the amazing show and seeing what other Aboriginal people were doing. It was one of the first times I was exposed to new Aboriginal people to look up to. It was very inspiring to my young self.

At lunch we were all entertained by the crew from BluePrintForLife - the highlight, having two elders work the DJ booth.

The afternoon had great speakers Skawennati and BluePrintForLife – about community outreach that is culturally appropriate, reaching the youth in our communities – bringing communities together, in physical and virtual reality, through the arts.

So where is the hope? The hope is in programs like BluePrintForLife and in each of the presenters, who all have something to offer through their art, each reconfiguring their reality, and ours.

Tonight I finally was well and was able to do the test print of the lino cut – it took me a few tries to get the right amount of paint but I was very happy with the final result…now I will start on what will be the first stage of the printing. Looking forward to gettings these complete for the art auction!

Here are the details:

Get your tickets now for the 14th Annual Art Auction
Odawa Native Friendship Centre on Saturday, December 12, 2009
Enjoy an evening of art, entertainment and food, plus a live and silent auctions.

All proceeds support programming for Aboriginal women, youth, families, elders and community healing.

Book your ticket today, call or email:
Simon Brascoupé 613 882-7059 or email simonbrascoupe@hotmail.com
Colleen Sauve sauve@odawa.on.ca
Murray Pridham murray.pridham@ainc-inac.gc.ca
Darryl Diamond ddiamond@cscree.qc.ca
Tim O*Loan tmottawa@hotmail.com

Evening’s events:
Saturday, December 12, 2009, Odawa Native Friendship Centre,
12 Stirling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario

$40 ticket includes:
6:00 Preview and dinner
7:30 Entertainment
8:00 Art Auction Read the rest of this entry »

Today was a really lovely day and per usual on a weekday I was inside for most of it. I did enjoy the beautiful sunset on my way home. Read the rest of this entry »

So I’m starting to get ready for the Odawa Native Friendship Centre art auction for 2009. It will be coming up December 12.

This years theme is 7 Grandfathers – this is a teaching about wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth. I have some ideas for some new prints that will incorporate my “Chief” toy indian. I want the chief images to be about truth and respect – they will also be about identity.

I am hoping that I can come up with one piece to represent all 7 in one print so I’m working on those ideas now and hoping to have everything ready well in advance so that I will *fingers crossed* have time to do a beaded piece…

Here is my early sketch in pencil with an image and figure.

I want this to be a 2 stage print so there will be a written portion to this print but I’m going to start with the figure and then move from there.

So stay tuned – the work in on…

In preparation for the show I’ve been preparing new prints for the show. This is my four directions print. I really wanted it to have a fluidity and also have hints of birds (which hopefully people will be able to see) – I am going to add some beadwork to this piece but you will have to go and see the show to see it. Read the rest of this entry »

The word is out – I will be exhibiting at Sweetgrass Aboriginal Bistro, 108 Murray Street with Simon Brascoupé and Karen Hodge Russell from August 18 until September 24, 2009.

Read the rest of this entry »