Drawing from all the insight I have gained from my time with Natalie, and my own personal experiences that I brought to this partnership, my creative response is the product of my attempts to merge what’s comfortable to me with what’s uncomfortable. During our partnership, I learned just as much from observing as I did from assisting Natalie with a random assortment of tasks.

After reflecting on our readings, I realize now that so much of what has shaped me during this experience is noticing the incredible amount of time Natalie pours into both the material and the immaterial labor that is required for her art. Especially as I helped her with the mundane yet time consuming work that is to be anticipated with such detail oriented, somewhat large scale installations, I discovered that there are truly no short cuts when it comes to art. With that being said, these are all things I have tried to take into account as I worked on my own little sculpture for my creative response.

Personally, I find that Natalie and I have quite different styles when it comes to art making. I know that she enjoys experimenting with different materials, and as such her work is often materially motivated. Furthermore, from what I’ve gathered through observing her artwork and with a slight bit inferring, it seems as though she is quite interested in pursuing what is self sufficient and sustainable. So, as a homage to Natalie’s practice, I decided to approach my creative response from a materially focused perspective in lieu of my usual propensity for focusing on design first.

The process of creating my sculpture consisted mainly of me sitting with the materials I had in front of me, and willing myself to start carving without thinking too much. I chose to carve a candle because I had never worked with wax before, and I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. Combining materials is also something I seldom do, so I had to think about how everything would come together. In all honesty, I really wasn’t quite sure how exactly I wanted my sculpture to look, all I knew was that I wanted to create something that held true to my ideas of sustainability and using mixed materials. Overall, my main take away from lots of talking and working with Natalie is that sometimes you really don’t know how your art will turn out, but you have to trust that it knows what it’s doing.

I made this finished product by carving a candle and using the leftover wax as the filler at the bottom of the jar, then I took one of the gloves I was wearing to add to the jar. This way, these is as little waste as possible, and the end result is something that can be considered an artwork with a practical function, much like most of Natalie’s work. As the candle is lit and it slowly melts away into itself, I think that is when the sculpture will really come to life. The hand serves as a reminder that you are taking something away from the candle the more you use it, and might make you ask yourself how badly you truly need this candle every time you are tempted to light it.

I wasn’t intending on naming this, but the phrase that keeps coming to my mind as I look at my sculpture is

“the hand that keeps on giving”.

Natalie is an interdisciplinary artist and designer based in Vancouver. She grew up in Radium Hot Springs, a small town in the Canadian Rockies. Her work seeks out spaces between art, design, performance and daily life. Finding it difficult to settle on one form of expression, Natalie simply decided to do it all. She seamlessly switches from set designing to creating thought provoking installations. Her visual art practice is materially motivated and driven by curiosities in anthropology, archaeology, human/nature relationships, morphology and formal arrangement.

Natalie also has a great passion for travelling, which makes her job particularly enjoyable as she often travels for residencies or commissioned work. In her early career, she largely focused on fashion and design, out of which came her award winning clothing line – Hunt&Gather.  This clothing features handmade items with an emphasis on natural materials and contemporary design. Branching out from fashion, she started a year long project in 2010 called Makeshift that received worldwide attention and press. This is the endeavor that made her re-evaluate where her true passions lie, acting as both the catalyst and segue into a more art dedicated career. As Natalie herself has said, design is what helps her pay the bills but art is what she really wants to invest her time into. Currently, there are many up and coming projects that Natalie has planned for 2017. She is ever-constantly exploring all her different ideas and ways she could utilize them in order to create art.

As one can most likely tell, Natalie has an impressive C.V that includes multiple awards, residencies, artist talks, interviews, businesses, and the list goes on. In 2012 she was a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts International Residency award in Paris, France. Still, despite her busy schedule Natalie tries her best to be a mentor and teacher to aspiring art students. She has taken on a few interns in the past, and has taught at multiple schools including Emily Carr and UBC. Breaking the stereotypes of reclusive artist, Natalie has worked on many collaborations (in particular with the dance community). She finds the art community to be quite interconnected, and really stresses the importance of both supporting and making connections with fellow artists. Both incredibly sweet and ferociously hard working, Natalie is certainly making a big impact in the art industry that is being recognized by the public and her peers.

Larger version for viewing: poster pic

So far, it has truly been a delight to work with Natalie. After our first two meetings, I was pleasantly surprised by the ways in which our partnership had already exceeded my initial expectations. Going into this partnership, I assumed that I would be akin to an assistant of some sort, who would help Natalie fetch supplies or keep her working space tidy. I had mistakenly conjured up an image in my head of a solemn artist who would be fiercely protective of her art. Needless to say, this image was completely shattered as soon as I met Natalie in person.

During our initial meeting at Natalie’s studio, we discussed my availability and what we both hoped to gain out of this partnership. It was decided that we would meet every Friday from 2pm-6pm, as that was a time when I would be consistently free. Once we were done with the formalities, Natalie graciously invited me into the project she was currently working on, and shared with me her visions of what she was hoping to achieve. This project in the making is an installation that will take place in the Scotia bank dance center, and was commissioned by a few of the dancers there. It consists of roughly 1000 playing cards, which will be strung up on the ceiling and connected to each other with string. Each card is labelled with a different dancer’s name. Without going into too much detail about this installation, the premise behind it is that in someway or another, everyone in the dance community is connected and intertwined; much like the dangling cards.

I think this project will be a perfect addition to the dance center that will really highlight the solidarity shared by the dance community. Also, I think it will serve as a great conversation starter in our own VISA 375 class that will spark lots of discussion regarding the art community, and whether or not we are all interconnected as well despite common stereotypes that tend to depict artists as reclusive, troubled souls.

As of now, I have been helping Natalie by sorting out cards alphabetically, inputting information on an excel sheet, cutting string, punching holes into cards, and assisting with all the other tedious yet very necessary tasks that are required in order to make this installation come to life. One thing I really appreciate is how she takes my constructive suggestions seriously, and how we work together in order to figure out the best way to complete these tasks in the most efficient way possible. It’s very much a true partnership in every sense of the word, and I feel as though she has really let me venture through this process with her as an equal and not just an “intern”. We tend to talk a lot as we work, which leaves a lot of room for us to openly give each other any feedback.

There hasn’t been a set deadline for when this project will be completed, but the goal is to have it done as soon as possible. Natalie and I keep each other updated through text, which is also how she lets me know where she wants to meet me depending on where she is working at on any given Friday. In November, she will also be collaborating on a piece with Althea Thaubergr that will show in the polygon gallery, and then later, working on another collaborative piece with 25 Emily Carr artists and 25 physicists called “Leaning out of windows”. I’m excited to see how those installations will be completed, and hopefully learn more about the multilayered mechanics that go on behind the scenes of an art piece. I also hope that by the end of this partnership I will be able to carve out a place for myself in the art community, and fully understand the role that my fellow classmates and I will play in each other’s lives once we go out into the working field.