Whole — artist residency
2018 intention:
It is crucial to leave behind the routines of our day-to-day lives to reset, reflect, and unblock the creative flow. Having space to play, imagine, and experiment with new ways of being without judgement feeds the artist spirit! Whole is about learning to care for one’s self — mind, body, heart spirit. Self-care is radical especially when the common narrative for womxn of colour is that they must put aside their own passions and overwork themselves for others. Whole embodies self & community care through honest storytelling.
Whole is finding a sense of belonging, a community of allies, a chosen family, even if for a brief moment in time. The intention is for each participant to leave feeling full: to create work that facilitates feelings of connection and empowerment; work that taps into the earth and ancestral wisdom within our bodies; to find ourselves: whole.
journey
7 young womxn of colour artists, ready to deepen our relationship to self, and expand our abilities as artist-leaders in community, participated in a week long residency from July 23-27 2018. The intention of the week was to create a space for us to receive mentorship by sitting with and learning from respected womxn of colour artists / activists / teachers in our community! The residency was also designed to be a practice space. A space for us to practice using our voices and our gifts by holding vulnerable dialogue space with each other, to practice running our own workshops (for each other), to practice leading movement & meditation. By the end of the residency, the hope was that each womxn involved felt more confident in themselves, as artist-leader-teachers in becoming.
Throughout the week, each residency participant self-signed up to lead a particular component of the day. An open schedule was sent out beforehand, and each artist held space where they felt comfortable. Different responsibilities were taken up by different individuals depending on their gifts and personality types.
All of us shared the responsibility of holding space for each other as we processed traumas, insecurities, and doubts, relating to our artistic practices and abilities as leaders and healers. The residency was not just about developing artistic-best-practices — it became a safe space for us, as womxn of colour, to express ourselves with honesty, to move through heavy blockages, and practice living holistically, as a community. Each artist signed up to create a journal prompt to share with the group to either open or close our residency days. Sharing leadership was embodied through deep listening, giving each other space to speak uninterrupted, and a judgment free zone to share ideas and practice bringing them to life.
Whole was ultimately about connecting more intimately with earth, and spirit, and in doing so, embodying more of the fullness of our witchy creator magic-making selves.
On the final day of the residency, overwhelmed by the love, support, and sense of family we exchanged throughout the week, we decided to form an art collective called Seven Waves.
May this house shelter your life.
When you come in home here,
May all the weight of the world
Fall from your shoulders.
May your heart be tranquil here,
Blessed by peace the world cannot give.
May this home be a lucky place,
Where the graces your life desires
Always find the pathway to your door.
May nothing destructive
Ever cross your threshold.
May this be a safe place
Full of understanding and acceptance,
Where you can be as you are,
Without the need of any mask
Of pretense of image.
May this home be a place of discovery.
Where the possibilities that sleep In the clay of your soul can emerge
To deepen and refine your vision
For all that is yet to come to birth.
— JOHN O’DONOHUE, For a New Home
AIR / Artists In Residency
“Within the process of Whole, I allowed myself to fully see myself and be seen. I felt fully accepted for who I was with trust and care. Feeling safe, I led with trust, leading to deep healing, unlocking mental blockages that had once stopped me from progressing. With the flow and space of connecting to nature, coming back to sacred ways of being, creating with a supportive group of womxn, I felt seen, appreciated and valued in a way I had never before. Growing up, the societal norm in our household was commonly comparison. Similar to advertisements and many story lines shared in mainstream media, other womxn were perceived as competition to one another. I had struggled with fully trusting other womxn and this experience has allowed me to get to the root of which I may not have been able to identify and work on before. This was definitely a part of my process which allowed me to redefine my relationships and be open and vulnerable in a way and build strong foundations to authentically progress in growth…”
“Co-creating a space and experience with these womxn aided in deep ancestral healing, breaking unhealthy cycles, and letting go of doubt and fear. Continuing to have this circle of womxn which has become a sisterhood, I feel incredibly supported and valued for the present me; the work in progress me.”
When we heal ourselves, others are healed. When we nurture our dreams, we give birth to the dreams of humankind. When we walk as loving aspects of the Earth Mother, we become the fertile, life-giving Mothers of the Creative Force.
As women, we are continually writing the history of the Legacy of Women. We cannot point a finger at men or each other without owning the pain of past generations who forgot how to give or teach human compassion.
When each woman honours her Self, more raw, creative energy is available to be used by the whole to effect changes in the way humankind reacts to life.
When we honour our bodies, our health, and our emotional needs, we make space for our dreams to come into being. When we speak the truth from our healed hearts, we allow life abundant to continue on our Mother Planet.
Our own family trees are filled with teaching situations and with tragic examples that may have blinded our own Ancestors to the values of truth as it is found in love. Now, the destiny of wholeness of the human race falls to the Sisterhood because all things are born of woman.
7 waves is:
Bea Palanca @beashortforbea
Celeste Cole @ovita.cole
DJ Tran @lazompire
Kristen Sison @bonesthrown
Maria Martinez @maisamar_
Michelle Lladoc @fiiiend
Radha Pithada @radhavibes
maraming salamat to our teachers + mentors:
Jen Maramba @jenmaramba
Jo Simalaya @kwentongbayan
Michaela Cruz @michaela_carmela
Sammy Jade @withallofmysenses@beashortforbea@beashortforbea
