Lead Artist: Lori Weidenhammer is a Vancouver performance-based
interdisciplinary artist and educator. She is originally from a tiny hamlet
called Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan. It is in this place, bordered by wheat fields
and wild prairie, that she first became enchanted with bees. She is the author
of a book called Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the
Bees published by Douglas and MacIntyre. For the past several years she has been appearing as the
persona Madame Beespeaker, practising the
tradition of “telling the bees”. As a food security volunteer and activist
Lori works with students of all ages on eating locally and gardening for
pollinators. On occasion, she likes to dress up in silly costumes and talk to
bees.
Lori is
originally from Treaty 6 Territory in Saskatchewan the original lands of the
Cree, Saulteaux, Dene, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota and the homeland
of the
Métis Nation and feels
gratitude to be able to live and work in unceded territory of the Coast Salish
nations.
Lori's web site Victory
Gardens for Bees Follow Lori on Instagram @beespeaker
Lois Klassen is an artist, writer and researcher
based in Vancouver, Canada. Known for long-range projects that invite and
engage participants in collective actions, her projects address social and
political concerns – deliberately facing ethical demand with social, aesthetic
and material methods. Klassen's artworks have been hosted by Dunlop Gallery,
Santa Fe Art Institute, The Glenbow Museum, The Western Front, HubM3
(University of Salford), Banff New Media Institute, and more. Lois Klassen is a
2020 Fulbright Scholar (Center for Inter-American Border Studies and the Ruben
Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas El Paso). Her PhD dissertation (Cultural Studies,
Queen's University, 2018) focused on ethics and participation in art. She
earned a Master of Applied Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design
(Vancouver, Canada) in 2011, and a Diploma of Art History from University of
British Columbia (Vancouver) in 2008.
Light Factory Publications is an artist book and chapbook
publishing service which Klassen has operated on an itinerant basis since the
last millennium, when she was an active participant in mail art networks and
small press culture.
As a settler artist
working and living on traditional and unceded Coast Salish territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh
(Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations,
I am humbled by the long and difficult journey for justice for Indigenous
peoples. I am committed to respectfully joining in alliance on this journey by
learning, witnessing and taking action.
Lois Klassen’s
website: https://www.loisklassen.com/
Crystal
Lee specializes in work-life balance and stress management for busy
professionals. As a Certified Life & Leadership Coach, she helps
individuals thrive during life and career transitions. As a Certified Laughter
Yoga Leader, she promotes health, creativity and productivity in workplaces.
Before training with The Coactive Training Institute (CTI), she received a
Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA). Crystal is also a proud Chinese Canadian who speaks fluent Cantonese and conversational Mandarin.
Crystal Lee's website Beyond Maybe Crystal Lee on
Instagram
Jenn Pearson is an artist,
based on the unceded Coast Salish territories, including the Musqueum, Squamish
and Tsleil–Waututh nations, also known as Vancouver. Pearson looks to her daily
surroundings for inspiration and materials. She incorporates into her studio
practice overlooked and disregarded materials such as: weeds, rocks, dirt/ soil
and debris/found objects. This material investigation supports the dominant
theme of her place-based practice, and is fundamental to her work with
textiles, painting, and sculpture. She recently received her BFA from the Emily
Carr University of Art + Design in the spring of 2019.
Recent exhibitions include The Show, Emily Carr University of Art +
Design Vancouver (2019), Intertwined, Emily
Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, (2018), and It’s Alive, The Fifty Fifty Arts Collective, Victoria (2018).
Pearson also continued her wandering/gathering/studio practice during a
self-directed artist residency at the Caetani Cultural Centre in Vernon BC last
summer (2019).
Catherine
Shapiro went to the San Francisco Art Institute for a couple of years in
the late 1960’s and immigrated to Canada in 1970. Settling in the Caribou with
her husband, they set up a printmaking studio and Catherine started gardening.
Moving to Vancouver in 1974 she continued making multimedia work that expressed
her growing knowledge about plants focusing on women’s contributions to the
development of horticulture. In the 1980’s Catherine began making environmental
works from plant materials that she foraged or grew including nettle, hemp,
cedar, wisteria, artichoke, mallow, flax and bamboo. These interests have
continued to inform her work and have given her the opportunity in the last few
years to mentor a young artist in growing and processing indigo as well as to be
artist in residence at MOP garden to continue this project. Working with indigo has lead her to
making a wide variety of paints from botanicals sources which she has been
using recently on a new series of cast paper sculptures and paintings.
Lori Snyder is an
indigenous herbalist and educator, with a deep knowledge of edible and
medicinal plants. A descendant from the T’suu tina (Sarcee), Nakota
(Assiniboine), Cree, Nipissing, and Anishnaabe (Ojibwe) people; with a Metis
blend of First Nations people with Scottish, French, and Celtic ancestry. Born
and raised in Squamish, Lori spent her childhood playing in the forest. From a
young age, she has been learning about plants and later studied herbalism,
aromatherapy and permaculture. Since 2013, Lori has been bringing forth her
First Nations perspective of wild, edible, and medicinal plants to help people
reconnect to the wisdom of Mother Earth.
