CREATIVE STUDIO PRODUCTION

Creative Studio Production, as can be seen at my website, is not new to me as a visual/media artist. Given that I work on a cyclical project basis, I am thrilled to recently be awarded a City of Ottawa studio space for the next 6 months.

Anywhere one travels in the world, artists talk about problems of availability and appropriateness of studio space. Artists living in the Kitikmeot Hamlets in Nunavut from where I just returned also struggle with lack of ventilated carving studios. They tell me carving studios are crucial to avoid respiratory illnesses related to ingestion of fine stone dust, sometimes contaminated with asbestos.

Rex Goose, Carver at Ulukhaktok Art Centre, Holman 

Island, Northwest Territories works on an antler 

carving of a muskox using communal tools.

The carving studio shown at left is a positive example of what can be done inexpensively for proper ventilation. This is the Ulukhaktok Art Centre in the Inuvialuit Region of the Northwest Territories, where I also visited in January/February 2013. Even when a carver works at home, they must wear a mask to prevent respiratory problems.

Taluq Design Centre of Taloyoak/Spence Bay, Boothia 

Peninsula Nunavut, Canada

The Taluq Design Centre artists of Taloyoak Nunavut (shown) have successfully combined a place for creative production and sales. Local fibre artists create wool sculptures unique to Taloyoak which are priced at standard corporate rates. On the other hand, most artists in Kitikmeot as everywhere, work out of their homes. The difference in Nunavut is artists sell door-to-door in a climate that dips to -50c wind chill, pulling an antler sculpture or wall hanging from under their parka before a quick sale is made.

An artist studio is anywhere one works and can be in or outside the home.  My new project studio  space is idyllically located outside but near my home, and a short scenic bike ride to my sailing club.

An inspirational setting in which to muse, my recent arctic memories intermingling with Ottawa River spring and summer seasonal fragrances. The abundance of my photography and journal research in the Inuvialuit NWT and Kitikmeot Nunavut during January/February 2013 surrounds me, now in a contrasting southern geography. This alchemy of production includes experimental techniques and medium. My studio practice is research based. As in my writing, my visual/media practice is autobiographically inspired and positioned within larger contemporary aesthetic and socio-enviromental discussion on the dynamic of memory where the present recreates the past, and implications for fluidity in identity.