In preparation of our event on December 5th, we wanted to share an piece to think with, as we come together to share our inquiries with paint.

When thinking about the liveliness of materials; particularly the complexities and comparisons between paint and it’s sentient counterparts, it seems only natural that our relations with paint would also stem from dark and troubling histories.

As Yahlnaaw mentioned in her workshop, “MaahlGa Sdiihlga GawGa – “Returning Missing Seeds”: Reclaiming Indigenous Power Structures”; 
“Different methods were used to colonize; thus different methods need to be used to de-colonize.”

How do we use paint to think critically about art history; both past, present and future? What is our responsibility in being with paint? What stories are we choosing to tell in our journeys with paint? What narratives do we choose to perpetuate? What values do we uphold?  Who has access to the creation and dissemination of art and artistic expression?  Why?

What is Enough?

A new book joined us at Juniper Place this week, Enough is…. Written by Jessica Whipple and Illustrated by Nicole Wong.

The pages hold words that feel, on many levels, important right now.

In our supervisor meeting yesterday we spoke about our role as educators in this time. Asking ourselves what we are going to ‘Do’? What ways, in our everyday, are we going to disrupt the ‘noisy’ messaging of neoliberal ideals, consumption and the drive for economic gain above all else? Listening, seems even more important now than it did two days ago.

I would like to share these simple, yet powerful words by Jessica Whipple:

“Somewhere between a little and a lot, there is Enough. It might be hard to spot, but it’s always there. Sometimes you have to squint to see Enough past New and Better, looking so bright and shiny. Enough is hard to recognize.  Hearing it is even harder. More is so loud and pushy and Most beats down your door, but Enough whispers, “I have all I need”.

Be well everyone!

Jamie

“As long as we have that belief and the need to improve the future, then the future will be improved.” -Murray Sinclair (Jan. 24, 1951-Nov. 4, 2024, Peguis First Nation, Métis/Ojibwa), the former chair of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), judge, senator (from CBC News, Mar. 23, 2018, YouTube – link to video below)

Watch: (7 min video) Sen. Murray Sinclair: How can Canadians work towards reconciliation?

Read: On belonging: Reflections from the late Murray Sinclair (Dal News, Nov. 4, 2024)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Links: Executive Summary TRC (2015)

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action (2015)

Hello from Juniper Place.

We would like to say thank you to everyone for making last weeks Pro Day so wonderful and engaging. At Juniper Place, we are excited to be thinking with Listening this year. Listening is entangled in all that we do and has been particularly important to us over the past couple of months as we adjust to a new year, new energies, and new ways of being at Juniper Place. We would like to offer a few of the questions, thoughts and ideas that we are starting out with:

We have been thinking deeply about what it means to slow down, to be present, and to Listen.

We are a community and we believe we must seek connection, have an openness to truly  know one another (more-than-human and human) and listen with our whole self.

Listening at Juniper Place is grounded in acts of feeling.

We are asking out selves:

What engagements, connections, experiences, and ways of being in the world do we open ourselves to when we expand our conceptualization of listening beyond the simple act of hearing?

• How do we listen to each other, respecting each others knowledge, experiences and ways of being in the world beyond what is simply audible?
• How can we get to know and feel one another?
• How do we listen with the more-than-human world?

We are also considering what is needed to foster an environment of Listening:

• Willingness to reconsider what we ‘know’
• Openness and self reflection
• Curiosity
• Desire to connect
• Paying Attention
• feeling/empathy

A few thoughts we are thinking with…

Dame Evelyn Glennie (2024),

“Listening is the glue to humanity…[It’s] the thing that creates a bridge between one person and another, whether that is the spoken word, the written word, or whether there are no words, it’s that presence. And so we always think that in order to listen, it has to come from a sound, so we must hear something. But actually listening, really, is about paying attention. It is about literally being in that present moment.  .“ (Dame Evelyn Glennie, 2024)

Carla Rinaldi (2001) presents a definition of the term Listening:

“Listening as sensitivity to the patterns that connect, to that which connects us to others; abandoning ourselves to the conviction that our understanding and our own being are but small parts of a broader, integrated knowledge that holds the universe together.

Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013)

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”

Thanks for reading! We look forward to exchanging ideas as the year unfolds.

Juniper Place