Artist Biographies

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.

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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.

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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).

Jenn Pearson's website. Jenn Pearson on Instagram

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.

Lori Snyder on Instagram. Lori Snyder on Facebook