Thank you for all the support you have shown The UN/maker Series interviews. There has been quite a hiatus between conducting the interview with Elvira Hufschmid and being able to publish it for the public due to many technological difficulties that required its re-recording, editing and learning a new video editing program due to Microsoft deeming my old program obsolete. These delays were additionally prolonged due to the production and refining of a 250-page thesis paper (yikes), harvesting seeds from the garden I planted at Union Gallery and the creation of more seed paper at the Paperhouse Studio in Toronto in preparation for the hand rendering of the UN/making Methodology. Now ready for viewing or listening, I hope you will gain new insight into how to further UN/make harm through your creative practice and share with others interested in embracing more eco-ethical ways of thinking and doing.
For those curious about how my Ph.D. is coming along, I am scheduled to defend on November 10th in Kingston, Ontario! Am I nervous? Absolutely! However, I have been distracting myself by trying to figure out what I will do next beyond starting to research how I can get more involved with groups/artists working with forests in the Simcoe County region. If anyone has any suggestions, please reach out, as I would like to continue incorporating environmental care and repair into my research and output.
So what do I know? I know I have been asked to lead a mixed-media artist retreat in Sicily, Italy, in March! This workshop will focus on the unique beauty, materiality and agency of plants within this Italian landscape, so whether you like to draw or paint landscapes, animals, the human figure or plants themselves, it will be a rich week of experimentation and discussion to explore how we are connected to these magical beings and how artists can respectfully use trees or other botanical bodies as substrate, subject or medium. Here's the link to discover what the retreat includes and book one of the few spots left. Please note this is not strictly an oil painting retreat, as we will be playing with plants as pigment.
The other good news is I am sharing an studio with Tyler Durbano at 8 Sarjeant Drive in Barrie, Ontario in the same building , where Frances Thomas has her studio space. We would love it if you would join us for an open house later in November to celebrate this coming together of bodies, ideas and art.
For those of you who would like to follow along a little more closely, you can follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/unmakingnetwork/, where I often publish the performative aspects and outcomes of my research. To check out some of the works I have been creating due to making UNmaking older works, visit my new page of Peggy to view and collect my latest abstract collages and graphite drawings.
Have a great fall, Jill.
