Holding each other up

The world is at war in multiple places, voices are getting shut down, fires continue to burst through cities and forests and the future of democracy seems to be holding on by a thread. Yet, at the same time people mobilized, take stand, and currently thousands of athletes and artists continue to offer joy, dreams and hopes through festivals, games and performances of all sizes and styles.

Now, more than ever before, I feel that collaborating on artistic projects is not only a way of sharing and strengthening our work but also a necessary support to hold each other up and through the arts, give a voice to the ones who are at risk of loosing theirs.

Coming soon!

If you are in Fairbanks, drop by The Folk School on September 6 – 8, 2024, for their OneTree3 Show, with a First Friday reception on Friday the 6th, to view what our community has made from one tree!

For this project, I am collaborating with my friend S. Hollis Mickey, who is an interdisciplinary artist with severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.). Over the last few years, I witnessed her struggles with this debilitating sickness to the point of being now entirely bed bound and unable to do her arts due to acute pain. A few months ago, being able to dictated some of her poems, she gave me her words and I gave her my hands:

"Tree falls with no one to hear" is the title of our collaboration.

Birch for M.E : Donation for a piece of birch from the project will go to M.E research

To know more about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) : solvecfs.org

To know more about Hollis past art: hollismickey.com

What happened

Professional Development

My journey in puppetry, seven years ago, started from a burn out. This art form helped me (and continues to) build myself back up. The relation between mental health and puppetry has always been dear to me since. After lurking at the municoterapia "Puppetry and Therapy" program for a while now, I was finally able to commit and take their online spring class. With students (artists, therapists, social workers, etc.) from all over the world, we balanced learning theoretical and practical frameworks with short personal puppetry explorations. It was a very rich experience and I hope to continue exploring this field in the future.

Performance

Finally being able to perform "Moving through the Boreal Forest" again two nights in a row in Anchorage was a treat! The space was much tighter, which forced us to do some changes that ended up making the performance stronger. Improvisation was kind of the theme of the week-end as we also gave our first workshop for adults together. Having participants rotating through writing, puppetry and percussion before improvising together short multidimensional performances was not only fun, but very fulfilling to watch and listen to.

Kids' fun

I ended up the school year with one week of shadow residency in the same school I gave my first teaching artist residency 5 years ago. It is nice to see the path taken since then, and how more secure and resourceful I became in this field.

Our annual Puppet camp was a blast! This time the jungle cats, tired to be ruled by a mean queen who kept all the food to herself, went to seek a solution from the dragons- oracles. During their quest, each encounter brought the cats a new situation to mediate and in return they got new friends and a piece of the magical wand as well as the spell needed to change the queen into a generous and welcoming ruler.

Sadly, one participant broke her arm a few hours before showtime. Seeing everyone able to adapt to the new situation quickly while being sad for their friend was a lesson on resiliency and proved the importance of improvisation skills.

A parade of recycled puppets opened the show and the first half presented three little funny sock puppet skits. The weather was nice to us, which is always a plus!

Arts Institute

In June I had the chance to be a teaching leader for one of the Alaska Arts Education Consortium (AAEC) Summer Arts Institute for Alaskan teachers. This brought me to Metlakatla, on Annette Island, on the southern part of Alaska. There I worked with two wonderful teachers, one from Juneau and one from Metlakatla, on arts integration and SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Music, languages, cultural arts and puppetry just work really well together almost in an organic way, and the Tsimshian cultural values of respect (yourself, everyone, all things, and take care of yourself) gave the perfect framework to the SEL used in schools (https://casel.org/).

We had a tight group of teachers and wonderful hosts who shared a lot of information about the Island's history and stories, tasty sea food and stunning artistic performances. Being in a place where carved wood artistry is one of the main cultural strength and is visible everywhere was a profound treat.

Puppet movie

After working on the first part of the movie in shadow during the first months of the year, as well as finishing the wooden puppets (hands, handled, strings), I finally returned to Victoria B.C for three weeks this summer. Together with our little team, under the gentle direction of my friend and professor Dr Tatiana Degai, we finished the settings and all the props before finally shooting it. The whole process brought a lot of joy to anyone who entered our studio to help out, say hi or just by curiosity, and filled us each day with renewed energy. Many stories and memories where shared and people and places where remembered. Through a lot of laugh, the right dose of back pain, hot days, and respect toward each other strength, needs and limitations, we were able to accomplish what we had planned in good working conditions. Editing will happen this fall and we will only see then how (and if) it all came together.

After every pushes toward a completion of a project or a performance there is this "slow" week that follows, where somehow all the physical and mental adrenaline is giving place to a need to rest and slow down. Taking that week to drive back to Alaska with my husband and daughter, was not only a stunning family trip but also a smooth way to reflect back on this summer and transition back into a more regular life at home.

What is next

It is the time of the year to look at eventual school residencies, grants, and future opportunities. If you know about any, let me know :-)

Otherwise:

I am starting to develop a new family piece.

I will have my first artistic residency in Homer, at the Bunnell Gallery, during the month of October.

I continue to actively support five rural school districts with their arts integration plans

and give a hand as a theater tech for our school district as needed.

 I send a letter twice a year, with updates on what is happening with CHAKPuppetry! This letter is not AI generated, I put a lot of time and care in it. If there is something you would be particularly interested, let me know and I might integrate a new column.  

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