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Taryn Walker is a queer, interdisciplinary Indigenous artist of Nlka'pamux, Syilx, and mixed European ancestry whose work explores concepts of identity, tenderness, healing, cycles of life and death, and the supernatural through drawing, printmaking, installation, and video.

In 2018 Walker graduated from the University of Victoria’s BFA program. Taryn is currently an Emerging Artist in Residence at SNAP in Edmonton, AB, and will be exhibiting work at the SNAP Gallery in May 2022. Walker was awarded the Diane Mary Hallam Achievement Award by UVic for academic excellence and commitment to the arts in 2018 and in 2017 they were also longlisted for the Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize, presented by the Presentation House Gallery for demonstrating excellence as an emerging video artist and photographer. Taryn’s artistic practice and research has been presented and supported by spaces, events, and granting streams across Western Canada and beyond.

Nicholas Hertz (he/they) is a queer white-settler artist based Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Their work and research takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the liminal space between shame and desire, where he connects to the objectification of the queer body and the anthropomorphizing of environments.

In 2019, they received their Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta, where they were awarded the Livia Stoyke Foundation BFA Best of Show Award. Since then, their work has been featured in many exhibitions both locally and internationally. Currently they are an Emerging Artist in Residence at SNAP, with a solo exhibition slated for May 2022. They are also a participant in the Love Lab residency at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, sponsored by Panasonic. They have previously served on the Board of Directors at SNAP, invigilated with the Art Gallery of Alberta, and taught programs with the Art Gallery of St. Albert.

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: Thanks again for joining us, everybody. My name is Hannah. I'm Digital Program Manager at Latitude 53. So tonight's studio visit is a part of Art From Here, a project that highlights an artist - or artists - bimonthly. This year, we're actually starting a monthly artist feature, which is really exciting. We are highlighting what they're thinking about - or not thinking about - in these unprecedented times. So this is a project that we've been working on since spring 2020 in partnership with the Mitchell Art Gallery, Ociciwan, and the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists. Latitude 53 Society of Artists acknowledges that we are on Treaty Six territory, the ancestral and traditional territory of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Salteaux, Nakota Sioux, as well as the Metis peoples. And this month - or, these past two months - we've been featuring some of SNAP's Emerging Artists in Residence. So in February, I guess - feels like it. Yeah. It's crazy that it's already April! So in February, we featured Taryn Walker and Taryn is a queer, interdisciplinary indigenous artist, whose work explores concepts of identity, tenderness, healing, cycles of life and death, and the supernatural through drawing, printmaking, installation and video. And this past month in March, we featured Nicholas Hertz, who is a queer, white settler artist, based in Edmonton. Their work in research takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the liminal space between shame and desire where he connects the objectification of the queer body and the anthropomorphizing of environments. Nicolas and Taryn, like I mentioned, were both SNAP Emerging Artists in Residence, and they'll both be having a show at SNAP in May, if I'm correct? Yes? Okay, in May. So, please watch for that. Okay, so those are my intros. I'm going to pass things over to Taryn to give a little quick introduction to their work and then we can... we can get started from there.

Taryn: Awesome. Hi, everyone. I am Taryn Walker. I am a interdisciplinary artist as mentioned in my artist statement and my work that was featured in Art From Here I look at three kind of distinct projects that I explored throughout the pandemic time period. One of them was The Breathing Wall, which was exhibited for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, at the E&N... E and N Roundhouse, in Esquimalt on Vancouver Island. And then there was a, an installation called Since We Can't Dance Together, which was part of The Works Art and Design Festival's 2021 outdoor exhibition last summer. And then there is another project called A Lesson in Listening, which was for the Indigenous Curatorial Collective, which was an online exhibition which launched in October 2021. So, all of these projects, although taking place different- online, offline, in different cities, kind of with with different themes in mind, they're... they're all very much pandemic work, and... and can delve into themes relating to the pandemic, but also more in general just, I think, thoughts and emotions that came up for me during... during that time. And I think as we can all probably relate to a little bit - especially early, early lockdown - it was really a time for, for myself, specifically to kind of dive inward and do a lot of... a lot of reflection in regards to my own identity and my own healing journey. Not only in terms of pandemic related talk, topics and themes, but in terms of my kind of indigenous journey and my queer journey as a person. So, all of these projects that kind of span over two years really kind of look at... at the theme of of healing and tenderness and kind of community and being gentle with ourselves. So that's kind of the introduction I have for my work.

Nicholas: Thank you so much. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions regarding your work. I think I have so many because I'm in love with your work and I'm like, constantly thinking about it. But one thing that I think struck me in a lot of our conversations in the SNAP program was that we both kind of wax prints and wax our images. And we... talking to you in the last time, you like said some things that really resonated with me but also are like kind of new way. So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about why you wax or like that appropriation - or not appropriation, the use of waxing - and like how you make your images kind of feel more bodily in that way?

Taryn: Mm hmm. Yeah, I first started experimenting with wax because, at the beginning of the The Breathing Wall project, it was originally proposed that we would be doing that project outside in a park, which never ended up happening. As a lot of the time happens with artistic projects, they like, evolve and evolve and go in very different directions. But I was looking- my, previous to that, my practice had been very drawing on paper focused, and I was looking at ways to create drawings that had a more sculptural feel, but also for practical reasons, were like, weather resistant. But, kind of since then - and I've been working with wax quite intensely, kind of over the last few years - I've really found that for me, wax has this very much feeling of the body. When you look at it in space, it has even like, some of its colorations feel very skin-like; how ink reacts with the wax feels very much like a tattoo; and when you hold wax encased drawings or prints up to light, there's all these kind of discrepancies and thicknesses - at least when when I dip, I do quite thick wax dips on my drawings and prints - when you hold them up to light, there's all these discrepancies that almost kind of remind you of what you would see if you held your hand up to the sun, or something similar. So I think for me, there's something very... when, as soon as an object feels like it's from the body or related to your body, it becomes very intimate. And I think with my work, and since I work with sometimes heavier topics or kind of delve into more, I guess, personal narratives, I think that intimate feel is very important for my work. I also look at wax as this incredible method of preservation, as almost kind of this ingenious solution as somebody who works with paper, right? Because out of kind of any art form, if you work with thin paper like I do, thinking about how that paper is going to stand the test of time, it's very high risk, right? Because paper can get sun damaged, bugs can get into it, it can get moldy, if it is immersed in water that's like the end of your art's life. Just from an archival standpoint, it's this kind of high risk material. Because what like... what are the chances it's going to be around like 100 years from now, or even like 2000 years from now? And I think by encasing my artworks in wax - since I work a lot with really iconographic looking drawings, figure drawings, all these kinds of images - I think this act of preservation is very important to me. Not just from like a... like a logical standpoint, but also like a metaphorical one as well. This kind of act of preserving narratives and having kind of these ideas and stories and narratives kind of living on through time. So I think those are kind of two big things for me in terms of working with wax. I think another layer to this - which I'm kind of moving toward kind of in the future of my artistic practice - is I'm very much interested in engaging in thoughts, ideas, artworks in very much like, a multi sensory way. And I think beeswax has this beautiful smell. Which, unfortunately when you look at works online, you don't really get that experience. But I think it just adds this... I think, multi sensory dimension to the work that I love and it's one of the reasons why I love working with wax whenever I'm dipping my work. It just like... it fills up my house with this beautiful beeswax smell. It's like, such a joy to work through this process. And I think that's something that I think is pushing... pushing my thoughts and my work kind of further into this, these ideas of how do I create like, a multi sensory like, sentence or an idea that uses more than just like a visual cue?

Nicholas: Yeah, that kind of leads me to my next question, because I think whenever I see a wax print, I always get excited because I smell them first. And I think that something that your work does really well is like, you kind of get trapped in it, you get brought in. And especially with the work that was featured at The Works. It was like, my first experience and I was like, "I love so much." And I think the- A Lesson in Listening work, I think, where you have the soundscape on the Art From Here website. I think that's like, another way that you're bringing in like, and using those senses to like, draw the viewer in or like, kind of situate them in an experience. And we were talking about our upcoming show, in your thing you might bring in like a soundscape. And I think that's something that's so exciting, because it's... it's almost like subconscious when you're realizing or when you're viewing work is you don't kind of... you realize that you're hearing something, you realize you're smelling something. But like, when it's all coming together with the visuals of your work, I think it's really really profound. But you kind of mentioned with your drawing styles and being like, quite iconic, and I was wondering if you've talked about how you developed your drawing? Because I- Your hand is like so unique and your images are so beautiful. And I was just wondering like, were you always that gifted? How did you get there? Like what was the process? I know that's a vague question, but...

Taryn: One day I will send you some of my early drawings.

Nicholas: Please. I look forward to it.

Taryn: Listen, you won't say that. I... my dad - who I get my Indigenous ancestry from - is also indigenous, a Nlka'pamux Syilx artist. And ever since I was a very small child, my art... my dad's art practice has always been a really big part of my life. And also my relationship with him as well, we've always been very like, mutually supportive of our... each other's art practices. So my first like, introduction into what art was and art practice was through my dad, and one of the activities we would do together while I was growing up was we'd just sit at the kitchen table together and make drawings, or he would be doing more complicated painting, or ceramics, or whatever he'd be working on, and I'd just hang out with him and make drawings. And I mean, at one... during my childhood, I'd probably draw a... draw almost every day, and just go through mounds of printer paper. I didn't... wasn't quite there with with sketchbooks yet. But... so, it was this very kind of consistent part of my life in my childhood, was to always be drawing. And I kind of always think about, you know, people say like, you have to do something like over a thousand times to get good at it. I feel like I would never call myself naturally talented or gifted. I'm... I would just say that I put in my my thousand hours very, very young. And I think throughout my adolescence, there was a lot of kind of replicating drawings from people that I kind of admired, or really experimenting with different drawing styles. And I think the hurdle that I had to get over, which I kind of reconciled with in university, was I was always trying to emulate other people, or make drawings how I thought... like, what I thought a good drawing was. Which I think, aside from kind of like my at home, artistic education from like, the external artistic education I got was very like, by European standards of what makes good art and all this kind of stuff. And there was this point where I kind of just let go of all that, and I started making these bad drawings for my friends in art school, and at one point somebody was like, "Oh, you should just this do... you should just draw like this for a project." And I ended up doing a project where I made over a hundred drawings, which was such a great exercise to I guess, really lean into just the way I was naturally inclined to draw. And I think after kind of that project and that moment that I had during my undergrad, I just kind of let go of all this pressure I was putting on myself to draw a certain way, and I just let myself draw how I wanted to draw, which is very intuitive and leaves room for making mistakes or having things look weird. Not in... not proportional, and being really playful with drawing. And I think that's something I love about drawing, is that you can be so playful and you can make anything from your imagination real, which I feel like is, you know, one of the many magical things about making art. So I think it's been a really long journey, like literally a lifetime of making drawings to come to my drawing style and where it is now.

Taryn: And I always say that my drawing style, I feel like it's like, a hybridization between my knowledge of indigenous art, my knowledge of colonial art, and Tim Burton.

Nicholas: I love that.

Taryn: It's like a Venn diagram of like, all those three things. That's where my art kind of lives, in the middle. But I think to like, anybody that wants to kind of find their drawing style, I feel like part of that is just... yeah, just letting go of what you think makes a good drawing. Because that I think is what ultimately stops us all.

Nicholas: That's definitely true for me, and I think that was one of the first things you said to me when you came into my studio. And you were like, "Do you draw?" and I was like, "No, not really no, no, like mostly photo based." Like my... in my undergrad, like all of the drawing projects, I would be like, "Oh, but I could do photo based!" Like, I would like to find a loophole. And I think maybe I do have to put in those thousand hours you talked about and just bite the bullet and do it but thank you for that one. Oh, sorry.

Taryn: Oh, yeah. It's just... I think, kind of ultimately, like we are like... I mean, this is such a cliche thing to say, but we're like, all our worst critic.

Nicholas: Definitely.

Taryn: Especially when it's something that we don't feel like we're naturally good at. Like, I'm not naturally good at sculpture. But I think that should never stop us from trying.

Nicholas: 100%

Taryn: Yeah.

Nicholas: I also think in COVID, it's been really difficult, because I think anybody who's shared a studio with me, I'm like a really social like, person that I need that like, "Oh, I did this," or "Do we agree that that was the right decision?" Like I'm... I don't want to say codependent, but I would say that I'm a codependent studio user and like, really love those conversations. And I think in the pandemic, not having that one on one connection or not being able to just be like, "Oh, is this the right move?" I think makes me overthink everything where I'm like, "Oh, this is bad. I've looked at it for six hours and nobody said anything, so I'll just like scrap it." And so I think I've like made less finished work in COVID, but started a lot more, I think is like where I've landed. But my last question for you was talking about your connection to nature, because I think something that really strikes me about your work is that you're bringing in elements of the natural world and through subject matter and even material, and like you talked about with the waxing. And I just wondered if you wanted to kind of touch base on where that connection comes from or the value you place on it?

Taryn: Yeah...

Nicholas: Kind of vague again, I'm sorry.

Taryn: Pardon?

Nicholas: I said kind of vague again. So, I'm sorry.

Taryn: No, that's okay. I would say, at least for me, I think I have a very like, deeply personal connection with nature. And I think I feel like, my most like, my truest self and also my most like, free self creatively while I'm in in nature. I think I also really process ideas while I'm in nature. Like often I can't just... I can't just be stagnant in the studio, like I have to go for a walk, or a run, or like be... even just sit outside to kind of work through ideas. And I mean, I grew up in a small town, in BC, Revelstoke, BC, which is in the middle of the interior, surrounded by like mountains and rivers and forests and lakes and all these kinds of things. So, being outside has always been very much a part of my life. But I think we can also learn the most from nature, whether that be about ourselves or just about life and the world around us. I think there's so much to learn, and just the act of like being in nature just has so much to offer. So I think.. I think I just feel like I'm just like, deeply connected to the natural world and also, I think we are all deeply connected to the natural world, even if we live in a city. And I think that just kind of ties ties into my work in a lot of different ways. Whether you're looking at themes like healing, or themes like tenderness or community, or indigenous futurism, I think all these themes really kind of tie into how we relate to nature. So yeah, I feel like my work kind of ties into nature in that way. And also I think I just love beautiful things. And nature has so many beautiful things, and so many precious, precious things. And I... you know, nature's this kind of beautiful being. I think it's such kind of an old, like, human way of making art is just to be an awe of the natural world, and I feel like I very much consider myself just in awe of the natural world.

Nicholas: Thank you. Well, that was my last question for you. Thank you for all your great answers. Hannah, should we open it up to anybody else?

Hannah: If anybody has any questions for Taryn, you're welcome to ask them out loud or you can pop them in the chat. I don't see anything, so we can move on. And we can always save questions, if you have a question and you want to save it till the end, that's also of course an option.

Taryn: Yeah, we can always do questions at the end.

Hannah: Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, don't hesitate if you're watching and you have a question and you want to ask in the middle, that is all good. We encourage the conversation.

Nicholas: Sweet. Hi, everybody. I'm Nicholas. Welcome to my dining room, which through COVID was definitely my studio. I think it was like, kind of strange starting the SNAP residency this year. Because it was like... I'm so used to being in like, my house to make work, and like could wake up and crawl out of bed and do it. And like, having that separation was really, really needed and really, really exciting for me, because it gave me that space to kind of do a nine to five at the studio. And since my residency I've continued, and it's been really, really wonderful. So I guess I'll jump in and talk about the work that's on the website. I shared four things, and they kind of all are sharing... or depicting a different way of thinking about how I was working through the pandemic. And I... my practice is really rooted in like documenting my experiences, and from that I've collected so many photographs and a lot of writing along the way as well. And I think it's... I've done less of that in the pandemic, but I've done more of kind of mashing that together and thinking about things in context with each other, and how that relationship allows me to like recontextualize those experiences or kind of create something new. And one of the ways that I've been doing that is using a lot of the technology. So, in those first few images on the website, it's really kind of clear with the digital interference. Like including the Photoshop grids and kind of doing that. And my hope is to kind of find the balance between - we were talking about this before the call - like, reality and representation. Or... I wrote this today so it's like... not that it discredits what's on the Art From Here website, but it is kind of constantly in flux. And I think it's me grappling with this idea of having a not truthful narrator in my life for like how I'm remembering or how I'm like experiencing these things. And how I document it, I think, is like a direct reflection with that bias. So allowing me like that freedom with the technology and the interference kind of shows my bias and my hand in that. So yeah, that was a quick one. I can move on to the next one on the website, which is a large three foot by six foot print at the SNAP window, and the text on that one is, "the lamp by the bed is still broken." And for this one I was pulling quite old source images but pairing them with newer text, and I was really kind of interested to see how that narrative of the photograph and the narrative of the text really kind of relate. And I think it's trying to show my freedom that the SNAP residency and the pandemic has allowed me to have that time and space to kind of explore. But yeah. And then the last one on the website is an image that I was working on for so long and I could not get to a point where I was happy with it, and I kind of just left it for a long time. And then I was at Rutherford library, and I was really frustrated, and I was sending it to friends. As we mentioned, I'm a very codependent art maker. And I was like, "What's wrong with this image? Like I need something!" and I was like, kind of caught with how I was kind of reflected back into the work. And I hate to get mad on everybody, but I think it was really kind of informative in the sense that I was documenting the way that I was working and I was documenting myself back into the work, and I think that became a kind of breakthrough moment for me where I was... the work is about the process rather than the product, and I think it was a way for me to kind of work backwards. So, having an image that was done and then reworking it and putting myself back into it created this openness to kind of inject new ideas or recontextualize those experiences. So yeah.

Taryn: Amazing. Now I have some questions for you, Nick.

Hannah: Wonderful.

Taryn: I'm just trying to figure out what order I wanted to ask you these in.

Nicholas: Super challenging, please.

Taryn Walker: What's that?

Nicholas: I said, "Super challenging, please."

Taryn: Alright. So as you were describing these works, you kind of touched on this a bit, but I found it... it's really interesting how you place the human body in your work. And even though there's so much technology in your images, I feel like your images are also very much of like... of the self and of the body. And I'd just love to hear a little bit more about how you consider this, and also how you use the human body to kind of drive these these personal narratives in your work?

Nicholas: For sure. That's a really great question because it reminds me of something that I wanted to talk about and didn't. For me, the body kind of acts as a stand-in for space, and space acts as a stand-in for body. And I know that doesn't totally make a lot of sense, but an example of that is I made a book like three years ago, two years ago? COVID's really messed up my time ability. But I was documenting every ceiling that I woke up under, and the mass of collecting all of these ceilings kind of really struck me with like, the emotional connection I have with these spaces. And I started like, thinking about the removal of the body in the space, and that was the first series I made without the body. And then I made a book of just like body. And I think the relationship between the body and space is like, kind of a constant theme in my work, and I don't think I can necessarily have one without the other. But I think the way I approach the body is not necessarily like an experience of being in the body, rather than like viewing it on the outside. That's kind of vague, but if that makes sense.

Taryn: Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's awesome. I think moving... that kind of segues nice into looking at how you use technology, and I'd be really interested to hear why using technology as a method to investigate queerness is an important part of your art making process and your finished works?

Nicholas: I think I have a two fold answer for that. But I think that I started using technology as a means of kind of documenting my experience because it was the easiest. And in that, I started seeing like, the flaws in that and what was lacking and what was missed, and I think my hope in using the technology was like trying to rectify or trying to fill those holes that I was experiencing in my life. So like, uploading an experience allowed me to like, tell somebody about it, or like make an archive of like, things that made me happy or sad, and I could like go back and revisit and I'd have that control over that experience to kind of do with it what I wanted. But as I kept working, I started getting really fascinated with glitches and technology and like how I can misuse it to kind of inform that experience. And I think it's a constant conversation I've found, and it's like not something that's always the same with each work. So I think one image, like the first two I talked about, I'm like really interested in like, how I'm using Photoshop to document like, something that's deteriorating, or documenting something that's like kind of fleeting. And that immediacy and like, using the screenshots to like bring back the Photoshop grids back into the work, I think is how I'm doing that. Whereas the last one, it's like more resolved, and it's just the computer mouse. And I think the technology allows me that freedom to explore those.

Taryn: Awesome. Kind of jumping off of that, both... I fine both of our art practices use softness, and ideas of softness in different ways. Whether that be colours or presentation or even like materiality as in... as you were mentioning earlier in your questions, kind of we're both using wax in different ways to kind of delve into potentially kind of heavier themes and subject matter. Can you speak on this juxtaposition and kind of what softness means to you, and how... and kind of why you use that in your work, I guess?

Nicholas: For sure. I think because my practice really was started... or started with like documenting my body, it was a way of like, keeping it super approachable and maybe - I don't want to say vulgar - but less sexualized. Like having it fragmented, kind of created a space for the... you could see the body and not be struck by seeing a body, it would be maybe more ambiguous. And I think what the softness does is it makes it easier as... for a viewer, I hope, to kind of engage with the work in a way that's... they're seeing a couple of layers. So, when you're looking at something and you're like, "Oh, is that like, a hand? Is that a back?" and then... It's like, a way that you can oscillate on the subject matter a little bit more. So I think for me, it's also important, I guess, to have that like... am- I can never say this word - (sounding out the word ambiguous).

Taryn: Ambiguous?

Nicholas: Yes, thank you! To like allow the subjects that I'm documenting to like the... to have their narrative a part of the work, but also having to open it for somebody to be like, "Oh, I can kind of see myself in this," or the message that I'm kind of putting on an image kind of fits. So I think it's important because it allows the work to stay really open.

Taryn: Awesome. So I have one last closing question for you. I would just love to hear more about... just in general, I guess, what your artistic process is like. But also, just how the... creating during the pandemic might have shifted this for you, and kind of what, if there was anything like new and exciting that came out of it, in terms of how you work and make things?

Nicholas: Definitely. I think pre-pandemic, I was constantly documenting, and was constantly informed by the spaces and people I was interacting with. It was kind of like a... like a visual podcast. Like, it was always like talking to people, and documenting, and documenting their spaces, and documenting my relationship with them, and the... my relationship to their space. And I think, obviously, the pandemic made that not possible a lot of the time. And I think it also made me more aware of like, how much I've collected and how many images I have to pull from. And I think pre-pandemic, my process would be really rigid in that. And during the pandemic it was like, way more reflectionary and way more based on writing. And so I've been doing a lot more like, stream of consciousness - which is what a lot of the text is pulled from - and there's like emotional narratives, and kind of going back to that archive and pulling images that kind of fit. And it's been a lot more reflection. So I think moving forward, I think it's going to be a little bit more of both, and I think I would never have - maybe I won't... I don't want to say never - but it would have taken me a lot longer to get to the point where I'm pulling text from one experience and images from another, and like having that ability to kind of like curate this experience or create something new between them. I don't think I probably would have gotten there as quickly without the pandemic. But that's not to say I'm happy it happened, because I'm not.

Taryn: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Awesome. So I guess we have... we have some time for questions.

Hannah: Yeah. If anybody has any questions, feel free to put them in the chat or ask out loud. I have a somewhat question, somewhat comment for you both. I'm just curious about... we talked a bit about like, sharing studio space. We talked a bit about kind of like, codependent studio practices. I'm curious because of like... this specific Art From Here project - which kind of like put your work in conversation with each other, and also being kind of paired together as Artists in Residence at SNAP - has that... have... working kind of alongside each other, has that informed your practice at all? Or has there been any kind of ideas or techniques or something that you've maybe learned from each other? Or... how was that kind of experience been for you both?

Nicholas: I think with the pandemic, we didn't get to interact as much as I would like. But I would say something that struck me about Taryn's work was how evident their hand is, and with the drawing and with the... and like how beautiful the materiality is. And I think in the pandemic, I was doing a lot less like, out of the computer. It was really digital for me. And I think seeing Taryn's work got me really excited to get it out of the computer and like, be doing stuff with my hands and, like, consider it in that way.

Taryn: Aw, that's so nice. Yeah. I think... yeah, I can kind of echo what Nicholas was saying. I feel like because our residency was very much dictated by pandemic regulations, e definitely didn't get to work together as much as we probably both would have liked. But I feel like this Art From Here exercise has been so great. Because I feel like I... yeah, have really sat down with Nicholas's work and it's been so lovely, and I think almost the opposite of what Nicholas has taken away from my work. I think it's been just so... I think I often forget about, like, digital work. Or, at least during the pandemic, because I haven't been like, out as Nicholas. As Nicholas was kind of mentioning like, taking photos or making video and... and that sort of stuff as... quite as much, I've been doing like, a lot of like, material-based studio work, just because that's what has felt kind of like the most like natural and easiest thing to do. So I think in the upcoming SNAP show, there's going to... I'm going to have to have some digital work that's going to also be a part of my installation, and it's just been yeah, so inspiring, you know, working in proximity to Nicholas. And I feel like it has kind of like, reminded me that I actually I really... like I really love making video work. And... and that sort of... I love kind of digital practice and that sort of thing. But yeah, it's been kind of nice. Sometimes you just need a little reminder that other... working in other ways is good and can be really fun as well. So I think yeah, it's just been... Yeah, it's been so great.

Hannah: Thank you. Yeah, I think there's something to be said about just like, turning your brain off of the normal way you like to make your work and just doing something totally different. Yeah, thank you. Does anybody have any questions?

Taryn: We can also take comments.

Hannah: Yeah, any kind words, feel free to put them in the chat.

Nicholas: I'm open to critiques too, while we're here.

Hannah: When does the SNAP show go up? When is it open?

Nicholas: Install is on the fourth, and I believe the opening is the seventh. But that is tentative. Yeah.

Taryn: Yeah.

Hannah: That's so exciting. How long is... ad how long is the work up for?

Nicholas: A month, I think?

Taryn: A month.

Hannah: Amazing.

Taryn: Yeah.

Nicholas: Just have to make the work. Just kidding. I have to finish the work.

Taryn: I also have finishing touches on my work, as well. I've been wanting to do some filming - kind of as I mentioned previously - for my my work in that exhibition, and Edmonton's winter has just not been letting up.

Nicholas: We almost had it last week. And then...

Taryn: Yeah, yeah. So I'm like, in the next like two to three weeks I'll probably get my stuff. But yeah.

Hannah: I have a question in the chat.

Taryn: Oh?

Hannah: I think it was a direct message to me. But what are you most excited about coming up as it relates to your artistic practice or your life?

Taryn: And who was that from?

Hannah: From Cecile.

Taryn: Okay.

Hannah: Thank you, Cecile.

Nicholas: It's a wonderful question. I think because we're talking about it and I'm in like in the middle of going everyday and like finishing that work, is that SNAP show. I think it's really exciting to have something tangible, especially when you work digitally. It's been like... it doesn't feel like you've done anything - for me at least - until it comes out of computer, and then like, maybe waxing or screen printing or doing another layer of printing on it. And I'm like... I'm excited to have that initiative to push everything to completion. So... yeah. And seeing people! It'll be so nice. Like knock on wood if that can happen.

Taryn: Please come to the opening and talk to us.

Nicholas: It would be really nice.

Taryn: Yeah. Yeah, I feel like it's... since I do... a lot of my work is installation based, I'll be doing an installation for this exhibition. It's always really exciting to see kind of all of these components that have been in my headkind of finally come together, because I don't see everything together until I'm literally installing. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. I'm also really excited, this fall I'll be starting my Master's at SFU. My MFA, yay! And yeah, I'm just... I'm very excited for that, to be kind of intensely working on my artistic practice and really make it a focus. I think - as probably all artists can relate - it's really it's a challenge to work full time and also be a full time artist simultaneously. You're essentially just like, being like a frantic little chicken around the clock. So I'm very... Yeah, I'm looking forward to just, yeah, having dedicated two years to just really zone in on my artistic practice, and discover new things, and push my work into entirely new directions. So that's exciting.

Hannah: So exciting. Yeah, congrats again. So Kelsey is looking forward to seeing the work at SNAP, and is wondering... just wants to hear a bit more about the ideas and the process of making that is going into both of your studio practices right now.

Nicholas: I think for me, with the SNAP show on the horizon my like... the work is kind of like, almost being like site specific, and it's really informing my processes. Like seeing measurements of a wall and being able to use that to be like, "Oh, yeah, this print, like, would make sense to be quite large, and having that freedom to to work large. So that's like maybe a cheat answer, but that is how my process I think is like, right now like today how I was working. And I think the pandemic also really allowed me to have more time to reflect on my own work. And before this call, we were talking about how my artist statement is like always in flux and always getting added and redacted and like doesn't totally fit and maybe changes, and I think that's the same is true with my work. Where I'll like, make something and think about it for a little bit. And maybe it's not necessarily like, how I'm feeling the next day, and I'll make some changes to it. So it's really, really in flux, I think with both. But I'm like, really constantly working under an umbrella theme of finding a balance between reality and representation. So I think it's a way for me to illustrate an experience, but also of staying true to this idea of documentation and pulling from that archive, and how - or how not - I'm able to kind of show those experiences, or show kind of a personal narrative on that.

Taryn: I feel like my artistic practice is like one Monty Python moment after another. It's like, "And now for something completely different! Ding!" But even though there is like, a connection through kind of all of my artworks, I think I'm very much a person that loves experimenting with new things, trying kind of new ways of looking at kind of similar ideas. This installation that I'll be doing for the exhibition in May is kind of pulling ideas from a bunch of different... basically all of the different projects that kind of featured in Art From Here. There's a little bit of Lesson From Listening, there's a little bit of Since We Can't Dance Together, there's a little bit of Breathing Wall, kind of all... kind of mixed in with what I'm intending to present. And I think each time I make an artwork, kind of... there's always this like, new realization of, "Oh, there's this like, specific way that I'm like, looking at this differently that is exciting," and, "I want to explore kind of this more." So I think, one thing that I've been really looking at, in terms of working with wax is really considering how light reacts with a kind of wax depth drawing, and drawings and prints. So that is a really, really big part of what I'm working with right now. And also, since I do work a lot with nature in terms of... whether that's video recording or photography or soundscapes I've - as I kind of mentioned before - I'm kind of waiting for this opportune moment where I'm going to go out and film and kind of you know... the stars kind of have to align for me in terms of weather and timing and all of that sort of stuff. So I think I'm kind of banking on April being a little bit warmer. But I think kind of throughout the... my works, I'm really interested in looking at different cycles, different natural cycles. And the cycle that I am interested in looking at in this work kind of specifically relates to decomposition and resurrection, or like kind of like life and death, and how both of those ideas like really, really feed into each other. And also of course, tying in bugs into that. So that's kind of where I'm at in my process right now, of kind of thinking about all these ideas and thinking about how different materials - both digital and physical - will be right reacting with each other, and yeah. And also yeah, just kind of working with nature, which is always a little bit of a patient process for sure.

Hannah: Thank you. I think we're gonna wrap up for the night, unless anybody has a another last minute question. But I will just give some quick thank you's to everybody at Latitude, the Mitchell Art Gallery, SNAP, and Ociciwan for supporting this project. And can't wait to see this show at SNAP, it's so nice. Thanks, everybody for being active in the chat tonight. If you haven't already, be sure to check out Nicholas and Taryn's work, and their writings about each other's work on Art From Here. And if you missed any part of this talk tonight, it'll be... the recording will be up on Art From Here this week. And that's about it for me. Yeah, thank you so much everybody. This was really really nice.

Taryn: Yeah. And yeah, come chat with us in person at our opening.

Nicholas: Please.

Hannah: Yeah!

Taryn: We would love to see you!

Hannah: I will see you all at the SNAP show on April 7th. Thanks so much, everybody. Good night, everybody.

Nicholas: Bye!

Taryn: Thank you, bye!