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Kerri-Lynn Reeves (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and mother originally from rural Manitoba, where she grew up as a European-Canadian settler on Treaty 2 land. At the heart of it, her work explores the relationship of the social and the material through the use of spatial, relational, and craft practices. With a commitment to blurring the lines between life and art, Reeves earned her Master of Fine Arts - Studio Arts in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University in 2016 with her first child strapped to her chest. Reeves, now a mother / step-mother of four, continues to explore the confluences of her art making, teaching, and parenting practices. Reeves is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Studio Arts at MacEwan University in Edmonton, AB, ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan), Treaty 6 Territory.

Jenny Western is an artist, writer, and curator based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She holds an undergraduate degree in History from the University of Winnipeg and a Masters in Art History and Curatorial Practice from York University in Toronto. While completing her graduate studies, she accepted a position at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon where she held the position of Curator and later became the AGSM’s Adjunct Curator. Western has curated exhibitions and programs across Canada and she makes up one-third of the Sobey Award nominated art collective The Ephemerals. Western is of European, Oneida, and Stockbridge-Musee descent and a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation of Wisconsin.

Hannah Quimper-Swiderski (she/they) is a visual artist, curator, and Digital Program Manager at Latitude 53. They currently live and work in Edmonton-Amiswaciwâskahikan.

Transcript

Hannah:  All right recording, there we go. Hello! Welcome everybody. Welcome to Art From Here. My name is Hannah. I am Digital Program Manager at Latitude 53. Latitude 53 is an artist run center located on treaty six territory. We acknowledge that so-called Edmonton is located on the ancestral and traditional territory of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Salteaux, Nakota Sioux, as well as the Metis peoples. Our recognition of this land is an act of reconciliation towards the ongoing violence faced by Indigenous peoples, and an expression of our gratitude for those whose territory we reside on or visiting tonight. So this studio visit is a part of Art From Here, which is a project that highlights an artist monthly and gives them platform to share with the community what they're currently working on, or thinking about. In addition to the artist's work, we share an associated writing from a collaborator, colleague or friend, followed by a studio visit with the artist and writer, like we're doing right now. This is a project that we've been working on since spring of 2020, in partnership with the Mitchell Art Gallery, Ociciwan, and the Society of Northern Alberta Print artists or SNAP. So this month, we're featuring artist, Kerri-Lynn Reeves in conversation with Jenny Western. And I'm going to pass pass things over to I think, Jenny first to give a little introduction, and then Kerri, I'll get you to give a little introduction. Thanks so much, guys.

Jenny:  That's great. Thank you so much, Hannah. Thank you for having this. This is such a pleasure and delight. My name is Jenny Western. I'm a curator, writer, occasional educator for the purpose of this discussion I'll disclose that I'm a mom, because I think that's going to come up and be relevant possibly. In my dialogue with Kerri-Lynn. I'm based in Winnipeg on treaty one territory. I'm of mixed European settler decent, Oneida, Stockbridge-Munsee descent and a member of the Brothertown Nation of Wisconsin. I'm a huge fan of Kerri-Lynn's work. I'm super, super happy to get to speak with her today as a colleague and a friend. And I'm gonna let her introduce herself, and then we'll get to dive in and have a look at her studio and talk about her work.

Kerri-Lynn:  Thanks, Jenny. Thanks, Hannah. Thank you, everyone that's here as well, in our virtual space. So my name is Kerri-Lynn Reeves. As you may have gathered. I am here on treaty six territory. I'm relatively new to treaty six, I moved here in 2019, shortly before the pandemic, so I'm still getting to know so-called Edmonton, and yeah, learning a little bit more I guess, about about this territory, and about Beaver Hills house, or I'm gonna try this, Amiswaciwâskahikan. And treaty, six, I believe was started around eight or signed around 1876. I know Jenny from treaty one territory where I lived for many years. But I was born and raised on treaty two territory, which was, treaty two was signed in 1871. But in trying to deepen my understanding of where I'm from, where I've wandered, and where I've come to have been doing a little bit more sort of thinking and research about that. So I'm of Western European settler descent, and came to, my family came to treaty two territory in 1882 as indentured farmers, so I'm still kind of unpacking what that means in terms of privilege and power. And in terms of, you know, nuances of oppression, I suppose. And treaty two the indigenous communities that I grew up around, specifically Sioux Valley, Dakota Nation, Bird Tail, Sioux Dakota Nation, and Kanpuaka Dakota nation. They actually aren't signed to treaty two territory. This is a bit of a tangent, but I find this very interesting. And that's actually because the Dakota people were considered to be American refugees, so therefore couldn't sign the treaty. But I'm just just unpacking that and learning a little bit more about that right now. So I I thought that was worthy of note that we all come here in different ways. And yeah, that, that sets a tone for our journies, I guess. And these different places and times that we intersect can really affect us. So I just want to acknowledge all of that as part of my personal land acknowledgement and bio. To get back to the more biographical information, I am an artist and educator, I teach at MacEwan University, that's what brought me here. I am a mother, and a stepmother, in a blended family. And I, well, you'll hear lots more about that. So I did want to before we go too far, and I forget to do it, thank Art From Here and Latitude 53 for hosting this, along with the Mitchell Art Gallery, Ociciwan and SNAP. I also wanted to acknowledge that the work that we're talking about and where I am right now is Harcourt House where I am the artist in residence for this year, I'm about two thirds of the way done. I also wanted to thank Edmonton Arts Council for supporting this project. And of course, my family, my family that I grew up with, and the family that I live with now, and Jenny, for sharing space with me today and from taking time away from your family to be here. So that's it. Thanks. Longwinded.

Jenny:  That was great, though. It was great. And it really segues into sort of the first thing I want to lead off with, which is that we have known each other a long time. And we met, we met through art, we were paired up through art, we were in the Winnipeg art scene together and didn't know each other or maybe knew from, of each other from a distance. But we were paired up by the Manitoba Crafts Council to co-create a project together. And through that professional partnership became friends. And I feel like our discussions really do range from like art practices and art careers, all the way to like pregnancy and lactation consultant, and kids. And where that all intersects is kind of often like where do we where do we work? How do we work as artist-mothers, and having time spotted out for studio visits such as this? You know, I sent my family away. And my husband was like, Well, how long do you need? What time should I be back? Because, right, it's like, you've got a finite amount of time, and you're riding that edge, and once that time is done, it's done. So when you're in your studio, I know you are hitting the ground running. So and you have mentioned that when you do get into the studio, you have ways that you prepare yourself because you can't take that leisurely time to really settle in, you've got to turn that switch and go. But that's hard to do. And you've been, you know, as you shared, it's raining in Edmonton and ran out the door and had to like, enter this mode of artist in residence. Do you want to share with us how you do that, what your process is for when you enter the studio? How you get yourself prepared to enter that zone?

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, totally. And that's funny. My partner Craig also asked that as I was running out the door, and it's like, are you will you be home for this kid's bedtime? Or this kid's bedtime? Like, you know, where does the labor, where do certain kinds of labor start and end is a huge question for me and how how can they blur and how can they not is a huge question too. So throughout my time at Harcourt House, I've been really lucky that Harcourt is within a couple blocks of my work. And a couple blocks of my kids, one of my children's school, and you know, not so far away from home. So it was often like it is often the place that I stop between my you know, work, my academic work, and then my parenting work. And it really is like I have to switch on into the artwork, the labor, art labor mode really quickly, and then like turn it off really quickly again. So one of the things that I've been doing actually is pulling tarot cards. So that kind of speaks to one of the larger themes within this body of work, which is sort of about healing and care, and about this sort of recognition, that you know, that, that in our society today, things are often very compartmentalized, you know, that that its mind and body are separate and like spirit or soul are also separate and that we are separate entities from the rest of the world. All of these kinds of ideas. And that our artworks even, are these like separate entities that can be kind of consumed and so, pulling the tarot is about checking in with my intuition and using it sort of as an oracle tool to really be able to settle within myself as a whole being not just an intellectual being but an intellectual, physical and a spiritual person. So yeah, so that's why I like to use tarot. And I've got this really awesome deck that I've been using for my my studio day. And it's called Abstract Futures, And it's by Hilmas Ghost, which is a collaborative out of the states that does work around Hilma AF Klint. Were one of my really, yeah, one of my inspirations. So when I saw that they'd made this deck, I was like, I need it. So it's been great. So I thought that today to all settle in this space together, and also to help me kind of settle down, we would pull a card. Now, I am not a tarot expert whatsoever. Um, I wouldn't even say I'm self taught, I just like to do it myself. So there are these really beautiful decks. So I'm going to just ask us to all like, take a minute, settle within our bodies, within ourselves. And I'm going to shuffle for a few seconds, and then we'll, I'll pull a card. And maybe I'll just sort of like the idea is that you kind of ask them something, and then you get it, and then you interpret it however you want. So I'm going to ask them something about like how, what we need to remember in this space today, In this this collective space today. I just dropped a whole bunch.

Jenny:  That's part of it.

Kerri-Lynn:  But it is part of it, actually. So the ones that I got from dropping it are the Queen of Swords. Isn't that beautiful? And then the Page of Cups. So I'll quickly look up what those are. So most of the times they come with like a book. This one maybe it's because they're artists that did it don't have a book, you have to go to their website. So I'll quickly read it. So the Queen of Swords, and if there's anybody in the in this talk that knows tarot, please speak up. Oh here, so Page of Cups, intuitive messages come to me, I am full of playful streaks of curiosity, I am creative. So that's a fun one to get for tonight. And then Queen of Swords is, it's coming. That's funny, these are card, cards that have never gotten before either. I make my boundaries clear, my communication is direct. I think those are both really good. So we'll keep that in mind today that we're playful and creative. But we're also have clear boundaries, and that's actually really great. That's, that's like exactly what I'm trying to do through this, through this work.

Jenny:  So when you get a message like that, it helps to settle you into yourself. Also. Does it also inform the work that you're doing? Maybe, do you want to talk to us about there's sort of two bodies of work that you're working on at Harcourt House?

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah.

Jenny:  Do you want to start talking about that?

Kerri-Lynn:  Sure. Yeah. Um, so it doesn't, like, it doesn't inform the work directly. But it might put me in a particular frame of mind for how I'm approaching the work, if that makes sense. So the two bodies of work are, and you know, we're talking about sort of division of labor like there's like the stuff that I do outside and then there's the stuff I do inside, well my studio is also split up, so I've got like the dirty side and this is my ceramics side. And then we've got this other side which is like the paper and fibers side, so here I'm making soft sculptures. Think you can kind of see them over there and they're covered in fabric that I hand print, with with like block printing with lino and then I'm also I don't have any here they're actually at a show right now the ones that have finished but that there are hanging quilted banners as well. So like that circle is a test for one of them, I've got like the the muslin version of one of them here. And those are all hand stitched together. So it's a lot of work with my hands, and it's a lot of work with geometric shapes and colors. And yeah, the clay specifically is kind of fun, because I've never really had the opportunity to do a large clay project before. I've dabbled in it here there, took a little workshop on it, you know, a few years ago, for example. And I got a wheel, which was really awesome, a year or two ago. And so every time I come in my routine is usually pull a card sit down, and then I just go sit at the, at the, at the wheel, and I throw a few vessels. And that kind of like helps me to really get in in the space. And if I only have an hour or two say, between the end of a class, and when I have to pick up kids at daycare, I can come in and like throw, you know, a few vessels and kind of, like, have that space and time to myself and actually make that space and time that I've held for myself physically visual through the ceramics. Yeah. And then, then I clean up and leave. If I have more time, then I get to do some of the fibers stuff. Yeah. 

Jenny:  Yeah. When you came into the residency, did you know you were going to do these two bodies of work? Or did they kind of happen organically.

Kerri-Lynn:  I, this is what I proposed to do, actually. And it has shifted and grown in my understanding of it quite a lot. At first, I knew I wanted it to be about care and bodies. And, like a lot of my work kind of explores this relationship between the individual and the collective as well. So like, you know, how was one vessel sort of like an individual, but how are a bunch of vessels also, as a body of vessels, one thing too. So I kind of knew that, that that was going to be part of it. But after I proposed the work, I started to learn a lot more actually, about trauma and healing, and that has informed the work greatly. And I think that I already inherently knew some of those things, deep down, but in doing research, I came to know that they were true, and that, that, yeah, I learned a lot more about it. And one of the the main things for that is that trauma is even, like whether it's a physical trauma, or a psychological or emotional trauma, it's still experienced in the body. And then it is held and processed within the body, and therefore it needs to be healed within the body. So talk therapy, for example, does wonders of course, but until you actually start to heal the, the hurt somatically like within your body, it's not, it's not as whole, as wholly healed, I suppose. So, originally, I kind of proposed the clay vessels about like, showing, you know, my hands have been used for caring so much, for children, for students, but especially, you know, just coming, I have a 19 month old toddler, so a lot of actual physical care with my hands there. And I was really interested in this idea of empirical knowledge and that, like, what do my hands have to say, you know? And how can I make that knowledge and care that's within my hands, be visible and physical, so that other people can kind of experience it or, or know it. And so this idea of clay, and working with the clay became really interesting. And clay is, is kind of mind blowing to work with, because it's really a collaborative process. Like I tell my students all the time that like, when you're working materially, it's a collaboration with that material. Like that material has boundaries, it has needs, it has like inherent character, and you can sometimes surpass it, if you have great enough skill or convincing powers, but you know, like, what kind of stress are you putting it under? Sort of, so this this idea of working with the clay is really like where my boundaries and the clay's boundaries can hold balance. And sometimes they don't, and sometimes they like, they col, they collapse. And it's usually like after throwing, like, you know, three or four, and then I start to get distracted, or tired, or anxious, or like I know my time's like, coming to an end, and then they just like start imploding or exploding.

Jenny:  I love that. I know you mentioned before that they reflect sort of your emotional feeling, which is so intriguing. But very interesting, because when you first revealed that you were working on the clay, I didn't realize that that was something that you even did, which, you know, just grows my admiration for you even more, but it's so interesting to see how you are dealing with it. And the way you've talked about it, that you're interested in a concept of like anti-mastery.

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, yeah.

Jenny:  With your ceramics. Do you, do you throw like one a day? You mentioned you get to four. Are you doing a few a day?

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, yeah. Because at first I thought like, this would be great. I'll come in, and I'll throw one a day for a whole year. I mean, that's like, that's impossible. Especially because it takes so long to set up and cleanup afterwards. So I throw anywhere from like three to nine, every session. But sometimes, you know, sometimes I get to, get to throw like, you know, five times a week, but other times, I only get to throw once a week or something. So I actually keep a chart. And I'm at like, I've thrown 218 pieces, and I'm on 230, the 235th day of my residency. So it averages out to about once a day, just by chance, which is kind of nice. So I'm thinking that by the end, I'll have around that, that 360-some mark. 366, maybe because I'm a leap year baby and leap years don't get recognized enough.

Jenny:  Right? That's right. Leap year baby, I'll remember that. So great. It's so intriguing, though, to think about like working about some, on something, a residency for a whole year and that this is reflecting your emotions during that time, you're out of your body. Do you also notice as you're working on it every day, and since this is something that you're exploring, anti-mastery, are you noticing, though, that your parameters and your parameters with the ceramics are changing? Are you starting to get a little mastery because you're practicing every day?

Kerri-Lynn:  I am getting better. But I'm still not great. And that's okay. Like every time I take them to go get fired at the clay studio they're like, Oh, well, you could have done this, or maybe you want to try this next time. I'm like, well they're kind of supposed to be messy. Um, and yeah, so I am getting a little bit better. But then as I get a bit better, I try new things a little bit too, right? Like, and it's, it kind of depends, like I feel, maybe I'll grab a couple.

Jenny:  Yeah, well, that would be great. I think it's so interesting, because you have them in various stages. And again, I'm not a ceramics expert, and you were explaining to me sort of like some are glazed, some are fired, like, tell us about that.

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, here I'll grab a couple of different ones.

Jenny:  Absolutely. This is great, too, we kind of get a visual of your studio this way. I'll stop talking so people can actually see it.

Kerri-Lynn:  So this was a couple that I threw a couple of days ago. So this is one I, this is greenware. So it's dried clay. So it's not turned to ceramic yet, like it hasn't been baked yet. So it's just, you could break this down and make it back into clay. So this was at the start of my session, this cute little guy. It's pretty even, you know, this is by the end of my session. Stuff got wonky, I wasn't able to like, pull it center anymore. And then next you fire it once and then it becomes bisque. So it's fired once, and then you can glaze it. And that's what most people know. So this obviously was one that I lost, I lost my balance, I lost my center. We were no longer collaborating very nicely.

Jenny:  Beautiful. 

Kerri-Lynn:  But this one, I mean, right? This was my attempt at a moon jar. So I'm also like kind of learning slightly different like styles or techniques, I guess just sort of by chance as I, as I go along. But then yeah, like sometimes I think about like, and you and I've talked about this a lot, like the idea of like holding, you know, this idea of like filling up your cup so that you can fill up your children's cups. So like sometimes I just come in here and I'm like, I just need to fill my cup. I need a bigger cup. So then I try to make quite large. Or sometimes I'm just like, I just need a tiny little space that's mine. And then I'll just make like, a tiny little, tiny little vessel.

Jenny:  Yeah, interesting. I feel like with the ceramics and like the vessels, there's there's so much metaphorical, allegorical stuff we can play around with like, yes, the filling of a cup, which we've talked about, you know, the woman as the vessel. Yeah, it's interesting when you're speaking about them now, I think, and you doing them and taking them to the experts to be fired, and they've got all these suggestions, and I'm like, oh, that sounds like children, I'm trying to, yeah, mother and raise and care for children and they're wonky, and they're not wonky, and they're beautiful in all these different ways. And and, and you're growing with them in your skill set too, and having that perspective of like, like graciousness that we talked about so much and forgiveness as a mother, but clearly also as someone who is anti-mastering a skill that you have, that you are also being committed to throughout a year.

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, yeah. And I think it's like that idea of perfection, right? Like that, within, oh, gosh, within everything, there can be perfection, you know. Like, sometimes I just wonder why I chose to, like be a professor, and to be a mother, and to be an artist, these places where, like, there's a lot of critique of, and, like, kind of surveillance of like, an expectation on your performance. And a lot of people have opinions about it, and I'm not necessarily a type A person, but I want to do things to the best of my ability. But like, perfection is not attainable. Perfection is not perfect, you know, and nor should it be like, to me this idea of like, being a perfect mother, like, you know, like a, yeah, like somebody that's got this perfect sort of life on Instagram or, or, or on their parenting advice blog or whatever that like, it's still like, it's, it's, it's, to me, really patriarchal, and also really capitalist, to be kind of commodifying things like that, or packaging them up in this, like really sort of clean, clean way. So I started to think about, like, anti-mastery a long time, a long time ago. And for me, it was actually originally from like, my settler roots, and this sort of like, make do, do it yourself, reuse, kind of ethos that I, that I came from, and this idea that like, you know, my mom was sort of a Jill-of-all-trades, and my dad was sort of a Jack-of-all-trades, and that's what you needed to be on the farm. And I kind of took that, to heart, you know, like, at a certain point, you know, when I was younger, I was like, how does a farmer, like, how does a farmer kid end up as an artist, that doesn't make any sense. And then I thought about it as like, actually, it makes all of the sense in the world. It's working with your hands, it's working with your common sense, it's working, like, through through care and creativity. And it's your, it's your vocation, but it's also your identity, it's your, it's your life, it's your community, it's, it's your ethos, you know, it's, it's how you exist. So I started to think about this, Jill-of-all-trades, actually, kind of from this idea of like, trying to decolonize or unsettle, you know, my, my history in a way. And, and trying to take that as like a decolonial method, and then thinking about it more and more, I was like, man, that is such a, it's such a feminist move, you know, to, like, refuse to be like, I am the master of this and you must listen to me and you must pay me money to be this master. So, yeah, that's a bit of a tangent again, but that's kind of that's kind of where it came from. So, but really, also just on a personal level, it's me trying to let go of being a perfectionist, you know, like I was, I was in at SNAP printing today, and I wanted everything to be so perfect. Um, But I had to let it go, because I know that that's actually like, ethically not what I believe in, in my art, for it to be perfect. That, that what I believe in is actually that things could be perfect, but they're not. And it's like, those nuances that allow for like humanity, right, like, then there's more character.

Jenny:  Yes, humanity. You talked about that the other day, I was just gonna say it made me think about one of my curatorial heroes, Sigrid Dahle who was here in Winnipeg, often used Winnicott's theory of the Good Enough Mother as like, foundational to the curatorial work she did. And before I had kids, I was like, yeah, yeah, that's nice. Now I love it. And I see how that kind of bleeds into each other, this concept of a good enough mother, the anti-mastery ceramicist, it's great. Humanity. Yes, you were talking to me about this before, and I feel like that thread is interwoven through all of this work. But maybe I'll sort of turn the attention over to your textile work. And I feel like, I feel like the idea and the concepts of, of humanity within art, and art world, and academia, I feel like that really finds itself in the textile work. Would you say that's accurate?

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that it's in both bodies of work, but like in terms of, I guess, accepting the flawed ones, and again, I don't actually think that there's any flaws, there's character, right? There's, there's human, humanness to it. But I think that the textile work is interactive, right, like, so I'm making these soft sculptures so that you, the viewers can actually interact with them. And the idea was, it actually came out of many conversations with, with Jenny, during my maternity leave, when Jenny would check in with me, and she'd be like, Hey, how's it going? What do you, what do you need today? And, you know, having a new newborn during a pandemic, in a city where we don't have extended family, all of those things, like, there were some tough days, you know, and like dealing with some postpartum depression and, and just dealing with it all, right? So I, every time that you would ask me that, Jenny, I just be like, I just need something to hold me up. Like, if I could just have something strong and cozy, that could just hold me up and keep me going. That's all I need. So I started to imagine soft sculptures that could do that, you know, and like, and also thinking about these, like ideas of structures? Like how can structures be supportive without being fully rigid? And set? Like, how can they be customizable, and changeable, and interactive, you know? So I've started to just like, make these. They're quite firm, and some of them kind of like, floppy, and you can rearrange them to suit what you need for your body in that moment. So you can just like, lay on them, or rest on them, or play on them, you know, like, the first thing that my daughter did was like, climb it and jump off of it, but I just like, drape myself over over the big triangle and let it hold me for a few minutes. And, again, once I started to do more research into trauma, that kind of came up about like, you know, we need to allow our nervous system to heal. And, and we need to allow our nervous systems to heal from the stress of the pandemic, but also intergenerationally, we are all holding so much and like that stress actually gets genetically passed on to us, through, through nature, but it also like gets nurtured into us, right? And so I just wanted, like, if nothing else, I just want people to come and to experience the work, to look at all of the ceramics and all their different stages of process, and to interact with the sculptures and to maybe rest on the sculptures. And when they leave, I just want them to feel good. They don't even have to know why, I just want them to feel good. And I, I know that like these ideas of care are becoming popular within art. But I wanted it to not just be an exhibition that talks about care. But I want it to be, like at the end of this residency, I should clarify there's an exhibition, and I wanted it to be a place that enacts care or allows people to enact care for themselves, to have some agency over how they navigate that space, that art space, how they interact with it, how much time they spend in it, and hopefully allow them to be comfortable. So the idea is that they're soft sculptures that they can lounge on, rearrange, play, play with. Some quilted pieces, and I think there'll be, if I can, can get it done, there'll be some other textile pieces that will make this space cozy and, and interactive. Yeah. Yeah,

Jenny:  You have so many skills here, it's amazing to think like, as I'm seeing them from the background, so you have done printmaking onto fabric. Yeah, and then you stretch that out onto foam sheets. And,

Kerri-Lynn:  So these are all block printed. Like with lino blocks. And then, yeah, they get, they become the skins on, on the sculptures. And then these were some early kind of prototypes with some fabric that I painted. This was actually one of my breastfeeding pillows. And then this was some fabric that I screen printed and dyed with some natural dyes. And then this is some quilting. Those are some studies for some more quilts. And for some prints that I'm making. Then there's some quilts and some other prints. Yeah.

Jenny:  So many, like primary or close to primary colors. Yeah. So many geometrics. Can you talk to us about why you chose to go with sort of, some abstraction to speak about these things? Trauma, motherhood? 

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah. Yeah. So I had my first child when I was in grad school. And when I told some of my professors that I was having a child, they, yeah. Throughout grad school, throughout undergrad, throughout my whole art life, I've been implicitly and explicitly told that you can't be a mother and an artist. And we, we know, that's not true. But this, this idea keeps coming up, right? And, you know, it's, it's a choice for everyone to make for themselves. Um, and I didn't get a lot of support for my choice during grad school. And I was like, told, not, don't make mom art, you know, and don't change, like, don't change what you're making. I was doing really socially engaged work at that time, and yeah, and I couldn't anymore, like all of my social engagement, all of my collaboration was happening deep down inside my body. And all I wanted to do was draw triangles. And I was like, I don't know what this is about, I've never been interested in, in visual aesthetics in my life, I've only ever, like been interested in social aesthetics, basically. And I just went with it, I just went with that intuition, and that ended up being my thesis, was a whole bunch of triangles. And I started to realize that, oh, this makes sense, actually, like triangles make sense to me on all kinds of levels, and it's grown, and now I'm really dealing with circles. And, and there's, you know, all kinds of theories and philosophies and, and histories of these shapes. But for me, really, what they kind of came out of was just this, this notion of like, wanting to protect something that was deeply personal to me, and that was my experience of family making. And I was trying to make sense of it, you know, I was trying to make sense of what that looked like, and what that experience was, but I didn't want to make art that excluded anyone else or their experience. And so, I think that intuitively, I just turned to abstract geometry, because it was the place that gave enough room for me to really go deep and personal, but it also left a lot of space for other people to enter the work and to interpret it in their own ways. And, you know, my deeply personal take on it wasn't necessarily, it doesn't necessarily matter for the viewing or the experience of the work. Hopefully.

Jenny:  Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I feel like we've talked about that a lot, too. Yeah. And wanting to make work about your experience about something that is, you know, everyone has a mother, whatever that looks like. Yeah. But not wanting it to be alienating, because it often is, or it's sentimental, or what have you. But because, yeah, the softness, that people, everyone kind of dealing with a sense of PTSD right now from the last couple of years, that we have all been a part of. Absolutely. But I feel like we're coming up on our time, potentially. But I did want to ask you, like, is there a place for softness within contemporary arts and academia? And how does that, what does that look like when it feels like it is such a rigid structure, and it is when we have to go hard at, and you have to be, you have to think critically, and all that stuff is so important. Like it feels almost scary for me to be like, being soft, being tender, showing, showing those sides?

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, yeah. I think, though, that so much of like, the social and political unrest that we've been seeing now is about this desire for people's individual humanity, again, to be acknowledged, and addressed, and respected, and valued, right? And that is a softness because it, it needs fluidity, right. Like it doesn't need rigid structures and checked boxes. It, it requires, I don't know some of those amazing structures from nature that are like rhizomatic, and that are evolving and shifting and changing, right? And, and that's to me, like, where these shapes come from, and these shapes that interact with each other in different compositions come from within my work. It's about exploring those sorts of ideas of rhizomatic interaction and growth. But I think, I think that softness has to come into the academy and has to come into art, so that more people feel at home here. Right, like we say that, that art, and the academy are places that are progressive, and are accepting and are expansive, and they're not going to be that way, if, truly be that way, if they maintain rigid systems of, of, you know, a value and these like, enough checkboxes like it really, we do need softness, as a society we do, we need to be softer with each other. And we need, I think within the art world, we need more soft places, right? And yeah, then, like all that all that heaviness, like, you know, there's all kinds of science and theory and philosophy within my work, but I don't, I don't want it to be dogmatic or didactic or literal, because then it becomes fixed. And I want it to be much, much more accessible and poetic than that. I guess. That's what I aspire to.

Jenny:  Well, no one has jumped in with any questions yet, but I would like to open it up for anybody who is here. If there's anything that you want to ask in the chat, or jump into the conversation, use the raise hand function, apparently, if anyone has any questions about any of the ideas we've talked about, any of Kerri-Lynn's technical stuff, anything about the residency? Don't be shy. This is a soft space to land. I'll give people a couple of minutes. Can you see that? Yes. Yeah, I just wanted to say yes, yes to everything you've been talking about more softness! Yes! [unintelligible] Yes. Yeah.

Kerri-Lynn:  Thank you.

Jenny:  Maybe if people are putting their thoughts together, I wanted to ask you what's next because you did kind of give me a sneak peek about you're going to do another quick little residency here on the side that sounds very exciting, and relates to the work you're doing now, can you tell us about that?

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, yeah. I think Mary-Ann might be part of that one. Is that right, Mary-Ann? We've never met yet. Um, so it's the Mothra Residency. Yeah, great. It's the Mothra Residency, and Mothra has been doing residencies, it's a collaborative of two artists out of Toronto, Alison and Sarah, and I'm, of course, blanking on their names right now. Sorry. And it's a residency for caregivers and children, primarily for mother identifying artists and, and children. So I'm not taking all four kids, I'm taking one kid, my, my six year old, and yeah, we're going to do some watercolor paintings, some marker drawings, and that will inform future quilted works. And oh, thank you, Mary-Ann. And, and future prints for some of the fabric for the soft sculptures. And I got the tiniest little mini ceramics wheel that like, make, makes teeny things. So we're gonna make a some tiny little ceramics there too, that are very portable. And then when I come back to the studio, that will really help to kick off the next little bit of the quilts and soft sculptures and stuff.

Jenny:  That's great, well I can't wait to hear what comes of that. There is a question that came in from Francesca. And she says, I am interested in your idea of making a caring space in the gallery. Do you think this is possible in all galleries? What I mean to ask is, how do you see your work piercing the institution? Great question.

Kerri-Lynn:  I don't think that soft sculptures can pierce, I think that it would be a softer gesture. I think is possible in all galleries if they're open into it, and you know, Harcourt House is open to it. So that's great. And lots of lots of spaces are, right, like lots of art spaces are interested in in that conversation.  Yeah, so I, I don't know that I see it, like really dismantling anything or, you know, taking down the man or anything. Again, it's just like, Yeah, I just hope that people leave, feeling good. And maybe come to a realization that it's not just that they feel excited up here. You know, like, Oh, that was really interesting, but like they feel good and calm here, and that might start this going and thinking about how that can expand within, within other systems, within other galleries.

Jenny:  I think I think this means Rachel has your hand up. Oh, there she's in?

Rachel:  I do. Yeah. I have a question, Kerri-Lynn. Um, what experience you had previously with the textiles, so like, quilting and sewing, printmaking? Yeah. Did you, did you learn those from somewhere? Or did you just kind of dabble in them?

Kerri-Lynn:  I grew up designing and sewing my Barbie clothes, and just like doing crafts of all kinds through 4H and at, at home. And then when I got to art school, I found that I kept turning back to, to fibers work. So I did my undergrad at University of Manitoba, but I took a year off to go to NASCAD in Halifax, and I took a bunch of fibers classes there. So that's where I first learned to do print and dye techniques, and weaving techniques. And then, yeah, I've just sort of expanded it like, and I love taking community workshops. So I took like an online virtual intuitive quilting workshop, the first spring of the pandemic, and it was just like a snip and rip quilting, and so there was like no rulers, like no, it was amazing. And it was really again, like about not having perfection, but like really working with the material. So I've picked up lots of different skills in little bits. And then I just make up lots of stuff too. Oh and the block printing for example, I had started to play with it a little bit during pandemic in my studio, but then SNAP had a really great workshop where you could print fabric and then make it into a quilt block, and I took that and it was like, oh yeah, this is like so much easier than I thought it might be. Yeah. So I just kind of picked them up along the way, and then I like to say that I like to line, like, fill my toolbox with a bunch of really basic skills, and then I just do whatever I want with them after that.

Jenny:  I always I think of you too as like, you're a great teacher and a great mentor, you've been kind of the textile mentor for my art collective, The Ephemerals, you were the one that you walked us through a workshop, making very simple dresses on sewing machines, and then you collaborated with us on a project down in Santa Fe, which I watched from a distance in complete awe as you and Niki Little went out foraging, and natural dyeing, and it's so amazing. And again, I think that was another time when I was like, I didn't know she could do that.

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, I know lots, a little bit about lots of stuff. And then I just sort of trust that I'll be able to figure it out with, with some, some good mentorship and, and resources and help and I usually do, sometimes it's a huge failure. But.

Jenny:  I said I wouldn't harp on you being raised on a farm, because I'm obsessed with that, but I think that's the farm kid in you. Like, go do it. Get that fence put in one way or another.

Kerri-Lynn:  Oh, man. Yeah, like the time that I put in an electric fence and then ended up electrifying myself. It's true, true story 

Jenny:  Well, you're here now.

Kerri-Lynn:  I am.

Jenny:  Well, that's great. We're, we're coming up on what, 8pm here in Winnipeg, 7pm there in your time. If there's any more questions, or I don't know, if you have any, any final thoughts, anything we didn't touch on that you'd like people to know about the work that you're doing now? Or in general?

Kerri-Lynn:  Yeah, I guess.

Jenny:  How do you finish your studio time when you have to now transition back to your other life?

Kerri-Lynn:  Um, I take off my purple crocs, and I tuck them away. And I usually take notes of like, what I made during that day and take photos of it, and then sometimes I share that on Instagram. Yeah, so yeah, that's kind of what I do. And if anybody wants to visit my studio, you can come on Saturday for Harcourt's open house. I won't actually be here. But my studio will be open for you to peek in kind of like a you know, like a museum vitrine, so you can come and see the work. And then the show is in October at Harcourt House, so you can come and see that. Um, yeah, that's, that's it.

Jenny:  Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing your studio with all of us and chatting with me. Hannah do I, do I launch it back to you?

Hannah:  Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. I can, I can take over to close out. Um, that was wonderful. Thank you to both of you for sharing with us tonight. And yeah, I just want to give some other quick thank yous, just to Latitude, the Mitchell Art Gallery, SNAP and Ociciwan once again for your support on this project. And, of course, to Kerri-Lynn and Jenny for the wonderful discussion tonight. And if you haven't already, for some reason, please check out the work on the Art From Here website, that's just artfromhere.ca. And I will see you all at Harcourt House in October, for the opening!

Kerri-Lynn:  Great, thank you very much, Hannah.

Hannah:  Thanks so much, everyone.

Kerri-Lynn:  Thanks, everybody for coming.

Hannah:  Have a good night, everybody. Thank you.

Kerri-Lynn:  Bye!