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.