IN THE PAST
Photos: Cylla Von Tiedemann & Alex Newmann
Choreography: Milton Myers & Terill Maguire
Over the span of forty years, I engaged in the daily ritual of going to a dance studio. As a Martha Graham-based professional modern dancer and master teacher, I pushed myself to go beyond perceived limitations and boundaries in the quest for absolute union of body, mind and spirit.
My life, in and out of the studio, was a complex of relationships to the conscious and sub-conscious worlds. With bare feet upon a smooth wooden floor—in diagonals, parallels and spirals—rising and falling—dancing, I embodied the mythological archetypes to the accompaniment of primal drums or solo piano.
This was the language of the world that I had come to know and trust so well. My primary relationships were with the ground below me—mother earth— and the space through which I traveled. In dance, these elements and I became and were one. I would have never known then, that one day, my world would fall apart, take a new form and that my future expression would be in the plastic arts.
The extreme rigours and demands of this career eventually took its toll on my body. I retreated, spending several years forlorn and grieving the death of ‘me’ as I had known her for my whole life.
Turning inwards, as I also transitioned into, for me, the unsettling reality of becoming an elder, I decided to direct my passions towards deepening and strengthening my life long engagement in meditation and delved into becoming a student of Bön and Dzogchen Buddhist based meditation.
IN THE PRESENT
Over time, the stillness and self-acceptance found through meditation, together with a deep longing for movement, became a crucible for change. Not expressing myself was causing a deep sense of crisis within.
This began my journey of finding another way to dance: by revisiting collage—something that I had done many years before.
The subject of my collages is always what I am connecting to and experiencing in my life at the time I am creating. Life’s ever-changing moments of wonder, awe, desire, aversion or disconnection, form the ‘working ground’ of the pieces and become a bridge to the viewer. I use recycled cardboard for my canvas and preferred materials are organic, hand-made artisan papers from around the world (some rare and many now discontinued) and anything that peaks my interest - fabrics, found objects, oxidized street metals, my drawings, etc. I rarely draw a shape before I cut it out - the act of cutting is a direct kinesthetic connection for me, the dancer, and how I “move” in relation to my subject. Each work contains cuttings from previous collages to acknowledge the interrelatedness of past, present and future.
These collages are a personal form of tantra (Sanskrit: tan : to “weave’ or “compose”) where my inner and outer worlds of existence merge becoming an energetic dance of colour, shape, and texture. The elements of my being, moving between my intention or ‘subject’ and spontaneous manifestation— become works of visual abstraction.
Artist Statement:
These works are my offerings to the world. The essence of my work is no different than when I was a dancer - to transmit energetically the experience of being and ultimately to be a conduit for reflection and transformation. My work is a direct connection to the vibrant, creative force that drives life to seek out expression. Whether through the act of meditation, reflection, or every day reaction, I encourage myself to embrace the myriad of life’s experiences, wanted and unwanted, ordinary and non-ordinary. In doing so, I come upon the sacredness and mystery of all experiences and am awed by this wondrous web of existence.
SOLO SHOWS—COLLECTIONS
2017 Inner Landscapes - Arisings From the Space of Being
Twist Gallery Toronto, Ontario
2023 Jie Prive Salon , Toronto Ontario
SELECTED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Toronto, Ontario
Vancouver, British Colombia
Canmore, Alberta
Palm Desert, California