Artwork reveal

BC Culture Days event was a success! I did a brief artist demonstration of extracting ink from goldenrod flowers collected from the garden plot. Then I revealed the art print I created for the legacy art project portion of the artist residency.

Ian Lai, director of Urban Bounty and Biliana Velkova of Richmond Public Arts were present to receive the two art pieces.

The print is an interpretation of Richmond City island to highlight each community garden. It is silkscreen printed with Indigoweed and goldenrod grown in the Urban Bounty garden plot, the paper is a mix of abaca palm and cedar fibre. The cedar is harvested by the passed Musqueam elder Terry Point, whom was a liaison and friend of Urban Bounty. The Urban Bounty beeswax collected by Ian, is used to varnish and protect the paper print.

BC Culture Days

My last cancelled ink making workshop has been postponed, and those whom signed up for it with waitlist gets first dip.

My last event will be the conclusion of my artist residency programming, at the BC Culture Days hub. There is no RSVP required, please do come and attend. Will take place on Sunday September 25th, 2-3:30pm, rooftop garden of Richmond Art Gallery There will be a ceremony of legacy artwork reveal and pass onto Urban Bounty and Richmond Public Arts officials. An artist demonstration follow up with questions and answers.

https://culturedays.ca/en/events/64d54147-3da8-4370-8d55-eb2fda337c14

Gina Page Artist Talk

Thank you everyone who came out to Gina Page’s artist talk. And big thank you to Gina for sharing her knowledge and skill in bookbinding and printmaking.

Guest Artist Talk

I’m hosting an artist talk on July 31st 10:30am to 12noon with local book and paper artist Gina Page. The event will take place at Urban Bounty HQ in Paulik Park. Please come to the Ash st. side of the park.

Please register for the event at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artist-talk-with-gina-page-tickets-381829390987 Walk-ins are welcome… chair seatings are limited, though blankets for ground seatings will be provided. There will be partial tree covering.

Printmaker, poet, papermaker, and book artist, Gina Page has spent most of her life on the coast of British Columbia, Canada, a significant influence on her work. Gina studied printmaking at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver with Bob Steele, has taken printmaking and other courses at Emily Carr University, and has been an active studio member of Malaspina Printmakers Society on Granville Island.

Her books of poetry are held in numerous public and university libraries in Canada and the United States of America. Her first chapbook of poetry, Along a Road of Pattering Shade, published in 1986 by Seawrack Press, was mentioned in a review by George Woodcock in the online Poetry Column of ABC BookWorld.

You can see more of her work at https://seawrackpress.wordpress.com/

There will be a short demonstration on book binding during the artist talk.

Workshop Photos

We finally had a sunny weekend! It was a full attendance with one lucky wait list person. Thank you all whom came to the workshop and special shout out to Ian Lai of Urban Bounty for helping me out again.

Workshop full

Thank you all for the popular support for the workshop series in my artist residency programming. There are still 12 spots for the waitlist. It will be first come first serve. https://edjuanpapermaking.eventbrite.com

For those of you whom signed up, i will send out a confirmation reminder email 4 days leading up to the workshop. Please response so I will be able to prepare for your attendance. Remember to bring an apron and outdoor walking shoes, you will get wet from papermaking. 🙏🤗

Second Papermaking Workshop

If you missed out on the last papermaking workshop, here’s my second workshop on July 9-10th weekend. 10am-1pm each day. Eventbrite ticket will say July 9-10th 10am-1pm total, please note it is each day 10am-1pm. We are not having a sleepover to wait for the paper to dry ;-)

Click on the reminder to sign up for the workshop before it is full. This event will sell out within a few hours. And it is only available for people who haven’t participated before.

You can sign up with this link https://edjuanpapermaking.eventbrite.com/ or click below.

This past weekend's workshop

This past weekend I taught a 2 days intensive papermaking workshop with the public. I was fortunate enough to have Ian Lai (director of Urban Bounty) and Theresa (volunteer) to help me through the workshop. Ian also got the chance to talk about Urban Bounty’s initiative as a food security non-profit in the community. I talked about my art practice in pursue of connecting with the land. A literal connection. I asked the participants to think about this while they make the paper with collected wild flowers in their vat.

On day 2 I did a demonstration on inkmaking from salal berries, a native edible plant of coastal BC. And I asked the participants to create visual art pieces on their handmade paper. Some of the paper were damaged from the morning rain but everyone worked with the imperfections in creative ways. Ian also shared his handmade plant based ink with everyone, which is AWESOME! I brought a few of my art pieces to talk about the possibilities of the process. Ian also shared his long term art project on threading silk from silk cocoons. I love his story of his ancestors whom worked in a silk farm for generations in China. He is finding a contemporary way to pay tribute to that history and heritage. Very inspirational.

During the workshop I spotted a pair of rabbit hanging around. They were very cute and sheepishly creeping closer until they scared themselves away.

Papermaking Workshop

Since this post few hours ago the workshop is now full! But you can still sign up for the waitlist, only 12 spots, will be first come first serve basis. Thank you!

My next workshop is the papermaking workshop with recycled cotton pulp. The participants will get to forage wild plant materials to blend with the cotton paper. I will be teaching the basic foundation of papermaking. The cotton pulp is the easiest fibre to work with and also most versatile. The pulp is already “sized”, that means the paper won’t bleed ink when you draw or print on it.

Sign up here, if it is full then sign up for the waitlist: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/papermaking-with-wild-plants-in-2-days-tickets-342502372817

DAY 1:

The workshop will start with an introduction of myself, land acknowledgement, and how my art practice is related to the importance of decolonization and environmental impacts in our contemporary time. I will also introduce Ian Lai the director of Urban Bounty to speak about their work in food security and education programming. I’ll lead the participants on a walk around the park to identify plants that may be useful in blending with the cotton pulp. Participants are welcomed to bring their own plant materials as well.

We will spent the next 1.5 hours to make paper. Each participant will be expected to create a minimum of 10 sheets of paper, though varied in size and weight. We will spent the last 30 minutes to clean up and hang the papers to dry overnight.

DAY 2:

Participants will return to reveal their hung dried paper from the previous day. We will flatten the paper if some are wrinkled with the “blotting” technique. Plant-based ink will be provided for everyone to draw, write, paint, or dye the paper. I will also demonstrate the technique of ink extraction for the class, though this will be limited to 1 or 2 plants. Everyone is welcome to take notes and use the ink paste.

The workshop will end with a group discussion to reflect on the experience. My goal is to help us modern human to connect with the land just as everyone’s ancestors did. Some may have already practiced this, and I hope the workshop reinforce it even more.

New signage at the garden plot

I was able to make new professional signs courtesy of the City of Richmond. They look great! Also, I’m able to use my quadrilingual skill at use. The plants are also growing well since I last propagated them into the plot. I plan to plant some indigos as well! More to come soon.

Garden City Plot

Urban Bounty was able to provide me a plot in the Garden City Lands community farms. I’ve planted several dye plants. Here are the plants so far: Tansy, Goldenrod, and Aster. A friend is going to give me more plants to plant in the coming weeks.

Inkmaking Morning Workshop

The first workshop took place last Saturday on Earthweek weekend at the Terra Nova Rural Park in Richmond, BC. In partnership with Urban Bounty. I was very happy to be able to host the workshop since I had just recovered from Covid and still feeling fatigue. Big thank you to Ian Lai the ED of Urban Bounty whom greatly helped me throughout the event in setting up and taking down. He also gave me feedback as a professional educator on how to improve on my next workshop.
I also had the opportunity to be interviewed by Vikki from the Richmond News, here’s the link to the lovely article.

https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/artist-teaches-how-to-make-ink-from-foraged-plants-in-richmond-workshop-5294218

I brought my own stash of indigenous plant materials of British Columbia for the workshop.

Cerulean Elderberry, Salal, Mahonia Oregon Grapes, Red Elderberry Leaves, and coastal goldenrod.

Beautiful coastal goldenrod.

Above photos are courtesy of Richmond News, Vikki Hui.

The next workshop will be a two day workshop of June 11 and 12th weekend. Signup will be posted two weeks in advance of the date. Follow me on instagram @edjuandraws to get the earliest post!

Workshop FULL! Waitlist begins.

And just like that, my workshop is full after one week of signup. You can still get on the waitlist, ‘cause from my experience only about half of people confirm a few days before the event. You can get on the waitlist on the same link:

https://richmondcity.perfectmind.com/23650/Clients/BookMe4LandingPages/Class?widgetId=15f6af07-39c5-473e-b053-96653f77a406&classId=efffaf6c-52f5-499f-b7f3-ee6b18a4e394&occurrenceDate=20220423&searchText=

Foraging to Inkmaking Workshop

All of my curated events will be free. The first workshop will be on Saturday, April 23 at the Terra Nova Rural Park in Richmond, BC. This will be part of the city park’s “Earth Week” event series.

The 3 hours workshop will focus on the fundamental technique of creating ink from foraged plant material. Participants are encouraged to bring their own plant specimens such as garden flowers of roses, elderberry leaf, willow stem, salmon berry, etc. Or food scrap materials like beet, onion skin, blueberry, butterfly pea tea, and spinach. Please avoid acidic materials like cedar, pine, yew, coffee, citrus, etc.

The workshop will begin with a 15 minutes walking tour of the Terra Nova Rural Park to identify indigenous and invasive plants of the lower mainland. Please bring shoes and clothes that are fitting for the April shower climate.

Please bring your own pruning tool or scissor, and small glass or plastic jars to take home your own plant-based ink.

Limited to 10 participants!

Signups will be ready next week.

Art Cultivation from Nature

I’m pleased and honoured to be the 2022 artist in residency with the City of Richmond and Urban Bounty. Urban Bounty is the non-profit organization selected to be in partnership with me to create a legacy project and public engagement workshops for the Richmond community.
I have the privilege to work and create art on the traditional unceded land of the Musqueam First Nation. I am acknowledging the colonial context of the Indigenous territory and the relationship between the land and the Indigenous People. I will use this opportunity to learn the history and legacy of colonialism and provide space for learning opportunities.

I will be posting workshops and artist talk events here on my blog and instagram @edjuandraws

All events will be located in the City of Richmond, almost all events have aspect taking place outside. I will be wearing mask for myself and recommend my participants to do the same. Sorry no virtual workshops! Most of my events will be posted on CreateEvent for RSVPs, as each event will be limited to participants. Though a few of them will be open to public without signup.