Creative Alchemy – Contemporary Arts, Traditional and Ancestral Crafts, Community Ritualist and Shrine Maker.
Ancestral Lineage Repair practitioner Trainee (with Dr Daniel Foor, Ancestral Medicine).
Artist in Residence at Mountian View Cemetery, Vancouver BC
My life’s path
I am a visual artist, animist and ritualist with a diverse and eclectic arts practice working within the mediums of community-engaged rites and celebrations, site-specific installations, theatre/ performance and ritual crafts.
For almost 3 decades I have been exploring the artist’s role in rites of passage, specifically death, funerals, and mourning, through Community engaged, site-specific installations and events, including creating shrines to honour the dead, and as Artist in Resident at Mountian View Cemetry, BC Canada, Paula Jardine and I have been creating ‘A Night for All Souls’ annually since 2004.
My background includes fine arts, ancient craft techniques and the philosophy of creativity, culture and making. This knowledge and wisdom is integrated into my practice as an Ancestral Lineage Healing practitioner – it is the Medicine of the Ancestors, a pragmatic and expansive way of integrating the healing and creative processes, both personally and culturally.
Kith and Kin
I am a settler on the unceded Coast Salish lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people, now know as Vancouver, Canada
I grew up in rural Britain, embedded in ancient traditions and history, before moving to Vancouvers ‘Chinatown’ and the notorious DTES ( Downtown Eastside). I now live in a floating converted net shed in a old Finnish fishing Village, across the road from mega mansions built overtop of prime farmland.
My (maternal) ancestors are of the Dobunni Celtic tribe, who migrated to the UK over 2,000 years ago from the Iberian peninsular and North Africa, the Fennoscandinavia. My (paternal) ancestors migrated a few thousand years ago from the Caucasus mountains ( Russia/ Georgia) to Hungary and Italy, and parts of Germanic Nordic lands….and there is a little DNA from India, so the family myth of Romany blood might be true!
I walk between the cultures of Britain and Canada, the ‘old world and new world’, both at home and ‘from away’ in both.
As a working artist, I have found that learning the traditional arts and ancient craft, ritual and medicine making techniques of my ancestors, not only artistically rewarding but also connects me directly and viscerally with a human lineage down through time …my hands are their hands, their hands are mine. Through this practice and the Ancestral Lineage Repair work can come many insights, deeper connections to place/ self and non human family. It brings depth understandings and healings into the larger cultural and political context – it is art/spirit for personal, cultural and social change.
For Ancestral Lineage Repair sessions, Consultations, experiential workshops, media opportunities, speaking engagements, podcast requests Site specific collaborations with landscapes, communities and seasons, please be in touch
