PAST GATHERINGS
Exploring Mortality through Wild Clay & the Body
will take place on October 28, 2026 from 16:00-18:00 on the unceded lands and waters of the ɬəʔamɛn qaymɩxʷ (Tla’amin) people at Qathet Art Centre.
We gather for an afternoon of clay immersion with a focus on Memento Mori (remembering our mortality and the shortness & fragility of life).
Becoming clay we shape artifacts that hold embedded knowledge, what the body knows before language. We will work with a blend of local and store-bought clay from Medicine Hat, Alberta ~ making beauty with what we receive and offering our creations ~ transformed by our bodies, our wonderful hands, and our wild imaginations ~ to the shrine.
This gathering is open to anyone wanting to explore mortality & the fragility of life through material exploration. No prior experience necessary. It is process based, which may require us to let go of old ideas and ways of thinking about making as a commodity for the market. Registration required ($30 CAD) and limited to 8 participants.
What a joy to be with nine participants as we piloted this gathering.
Rooted in Thomas Berry's notion of Inscendence, we explored a movement inward and downward toward the mysteries and intelligence of Earth. The afternoon offered space for both collective and individual exploration ~ a chance to slow down, attend to the material and our own embodied intelligence, and be together in the face of life's fragility.
I was struck by the quality of the group experience. Everyone approached the afternoon with focus, openness and a willingness to engage with whatever might emerge. There was a shared commitment to slowing down, exploring, reflecting and being present with the experience.
Our final offering to the Memento Mori shrine, featuring a painting by Megan Dulcie Dill, became an especially memorable part of the gathering. Each person approached this moment in their own way. Words accompanied each offering, sometimes just a few, sometimes a little more. Some returned their clay to be reworked, while others carved, sliced or otherwise altered what they had shaped before placing it on the shrine. One person included their proprioceptive writing, which was part of the process, alongside their clay.
There was a wonderful originality in these individual gestures. No two offerings were alike ~ each reflecting a different way of approaching release, letting go and impermanence.
The workshop emerges from the work I did at my artist residency in Spain and acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for realizing Meeting at the Watering Hole Project at Joya Arte + Ecologia AIR (2025)
beWILDering with
will take place from Dec 29 (new moon) till Jan 13 (full moon) on the unceded lands and waters of the ɬəʔamɛn qaymɩxʷ (Tla’amin) people (2024/25). I have invited members of the community to come as they are and as/if they are able, curious and willing to be lead astray by magic and mystery.
The project is in the spirit of…
multi-species cooperation and flourishing, we turn (non-dogmatically) toward the Gods and Spirits of this place to remember there is another way of being human
sympoiesis, we create space for collective beingness & creation
Core experiential components:
Embodied Imagination Practice, which involves gentle movement and evoking the creative imagination.
Creating with Earth Materials on an inspired and spontaneous basis.
We will honour the process by enacting a ceremony on the full moon ~ each artifact made, in the spirit of this project, will be offered back to the land, sky and waters.
*bewilder: from be ‘thoroughly’ + wilder ‘lead or go astray’
This project was seeded from the rich compost of the following dream alongside reading “Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene” by Donna Harroway.
I am walking along a pathway made of nutrient rich humus. In front of me the path gets steep and impassable due to its muddy liquidity. I want to climb up this hill but I am aware that I would get stuck or fall back down and must wait for it to dry out a bit. As I'm walking along this dank, dark, composted earth I gasp when I see three snakes and hold my breath as one of the snakes passes through my legs".
“It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what descriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.”
Donna Haraway