The Artsy Dudes Podcast
Constructing a Greener Tomorrow: When Art meets Ecology, how to create in a disposable world through sustainability
Get ready to reimagine the power of community gatherings as we sit down with Leor Rotchild, an expert in sustainability consulting for the events industry. This episode promises to revolutionize your understanding of event planning, intertwining environmental responsibility with a deep reflection on why we come together. Leor guides us through the labyrinth of challenges faced by event planners and provides a beacon of hope for those endeavoring to create sustainable and inclusive experiences. His wisdom is not merely about waste reduction; It’s a call to align our celebrations with our deepest values.
As the conversation unfolds, we're joined by Abigail Monarrez from the “RU Home Yet Collective” who brings an artistic and preformative twist to the sustainability narrative. Through her ecological take to the exploration of art, we explore the transformational capacity of art in public spaces, and how creativity with repurposed materials can sculpt a more conscientious approach to climate change. This dialogue isn't just about what's on the canvas; it's about painting a future where community engagement, environmentalism, and artistic expression converge into a masterpiece of collective responsibility.
Wrapping up this thought-provoking journey, we are joined by Nyx Orr, the other half to the brilliant art and performance group “RU home yet collective” whom together create the team of Squirl and Magpie. We delve into the intimate stories behind the "RU Home Yet" collective and their upcoming community art projects. Abby's partnership with Nyx at the Festival of Animated Objects and their engagement with audiences at the Folk Fest highlight the undeniable connection between art, sustainability, and the personal quest for home. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for those who seek to weave the threads of environmental stewardship into the rich tapestry of your owns community's narrative.
Get ready to reimagine the power of community gatherings as we sit down with Leor Rotchild, an expert in sustainability consulting for the events industry. This episode promises to revolutionize your understanding of event planning, intertwining environmental responsibility with a deep reflection on why we come together. Leor guides us through the labyrinth of challenges faced by event planners and provides a beacon of hope for those endeavoring to create sustainable and inclusive experiences. His wisdom is not merely about waste reduction; It’s a call to align our celebrations with our deepest values.
As the conversation unfolds, we're joined by Abigail Monarrez from the “RU Home Yet Collective” who brings an artistic and preformative twist to the sustainability narrative. Through her ecological take to the exploration of art, we explore the transformational capacity of art in public spaces, and how creativity with repurposed materials can sculpt a more conscientious approach to climate change. This dialogue isn't just about what's on the canvas; it's about painting a future where community engagement, environmentalism, and artistic expression converge into a masterpiece of collective responsibility.
Wrapping up this thought-provoking journey, we are joined by Nyx Orr, the other half to the brilliant art and performance group “RU home yet collective” whom together create the team of Squirl and Magpie. We delve into the intimate stories behind the "RU Home Yet" collective and their upcoming community art projects. Abby's partnership with Nyx at the Festival of Animated Objects and their engagement with audiences at the Folk Fest highlight the undeniable connection between art, sustainability, and the personal quest for home. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for those who seek to weave the threads of environmental stewardship into the rich tapestry of your owns community's narrative.
Hi Ryan, hey Taylor, how's it?
Speaker 3:going. It's going pretty good, it's beautiful out feeling better, feeling more loose getting winter off my back.
Speaker 2:Excellent, excellent, getting ready for the summer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, took out the bike already, man.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice. Any big events you're planning on going to this summer?
Speaker 3:I haven't marked any down yet, but, as you know, it is event, season is coming. It's going to explode yeah and um, and we do want to be sustainable about it oh, nice, nice transition.
Speaker 2:Um well, ryan, I'd like to introduce uh, one of our guests today. This is leor, hi, how's it going?
Speaker 1:wonderful. Thank you so much for having me here, this is so great.
Speaker 2:Excellent. So we kind of just loosely mentioned a little bit about sustainability, and this is kind of your wheelhouse, yes, so would you like to just introduce yourself and what you kind of do?
Speaker 1:Sure yeah. So I'm Leo Rothschild. I'm a sustainability consultant, my whole career has been in sustainability and for a number of years I ran a sustainable events business, and now I am really pleased to be able to sort of present a DIY or a do-it-yourself guide for people who are planning events to really think about their events, reimagine their events in a completely new light, with a deeper sense of purpose and tied to the sustainability movement, to ensure that these events are the kind of events that our planet and our world really needs to have.
Speaker 2:Nice. Yeah, that's one thing I've noticed about large events is the amount of waste that is accumulated from those events. So what exactly are you looking for Like? Are you looking for like provincial sort of issues, or is it more municipality, or is it just the events themselves? You want to try to target to be more sustainable?
Speaker 1:yeah, great question, taylor. So, um, I I'm not looking for, like, a government to do anything necessarily. Uh, having said that, I think you know, on a on a broader environmental level, there's certainly lots of work that governments can and, you know, should do, and some of that is happening. I mean, just in my experience of working in sustainability for so many years, it's really interesting to see, you know, like an economy-wide price on carbon, for example, something that I think many people didn't think was ever going to happen. But the message really is to both people who plan events and people who attend events, and I think events is sort of like this really interesting area to sort of zero in on, because it touches everybody. Everybody has been to events. Every industry does events.
Speaker 1:Typically, like industry, events are their own thing, but when you think of like why we do events? To connect with our community, to celebrate culture, to mark specific milestones in our lives, milestones in our lives, these are moments that tend to be really important to us, but the kind of events themselves often don't represent the values that we bring to these moments, and so the whole point in this book is really to get people to think about how we gather differently, and if you're somebody who is in the events business, then oftentimes these events can be sort of a little bit on autopilot. Like you know, it went really well last year. We'll just make these you know slight incremental improvements and you know it's a very deadline driven business. We know we need to start on this month. You know we need to hit this milestone by this month. We have fundraising goals, etc.
Speaker 1:And one of the, you know, in the first chapter of my book I'm talking about the fact that integrating a deeper sense of purpose really means asking yourself I know that if people are flying to my event, traveling to my event, and that my event is going to have a footprint, the first question I should ask before I start asking how do I address these things, is like is my event worth it?
Speaker 1:Am I trying to do something truly important, inspiring, something that can make a difference in our world and in our community? And I think that's an important place to start. And so I think that's something that, as both an event goer and as an event organizer, we could and should be asking. More is like what are the kinds of events that I'm part of that represent my values? Right, and then from there. Yeah, like I've got lots to say about how to manage. You know the footprint of the event as well, so happy to talk more about that. But I think it's an important place to start to sort of reimagine why we do these events and then talk about how.
Speaker 3:Excellent no, I really like how. And then talk about how Excellent no, I really like how. Yeah, I mean you have events to make a community more successful, but in order to be successful, you need some cleanliness, and it's just a great kind of way to integrate it. Like okay, we're focusing on this, but let's also clean up our community too and make sure everything is very nice so we can be successful. Yeah, just like that angle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the way I sort of think about it is you know, if you throw the doors open and people you know come to your event, wouldn't it be amazing if, first of all, they had an aha moment at your event? So that's, you know, something that I think everybody wants to have, you know, whether it's like the ultimate, like band you've always wanted to see, or whether it's, you know, the speaker that you know really, you know was provocative in some way. But aside from that, it would be wonderful if people walked out of these events going why can't every day look like what I experienced in that few hours or those few days that I attended that event? And that's what I think is. The real opportunity is to present a more sustainable, more inclusive future. That is possible for us today, right now. And then you're essentially generating demand. Every time you do these events, you're building your market for people who want to see their world look like this. So if you're not presenting what this is to them, then you're missing that opportunity with a very captivated audience.
Speaker 2:Right, let's talk a little bit about the book how we Gather Matters. Yeah, what's the primary reason for writing the book?
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for asking that. So how we Gather Matters was really based on some of my own experiences of running a sustainable events business for a number of years, and I think that the company that I ran was a bit early in the space. We were educating the market a lot about sustainability. There wasn't really a number of people who were willing to pay for those kind of services, a number of people who were willing to pay for those kind of services, and so I ran that business and the events industry like completely cratered during the pandemic Right, and so that's kind of when I got real about starting to write this book and try and get it, get a publisher for it and I was on a parental leave at the time it and I was also on a parental leave at the time, and so I it was like a good way for me to sort of like stay sane, to to have a creative project to. That was my outlet. But but my my thought was that I wanted to really present a vision for what events could look like when they come back after the pandemic. And then, after the pandemic, event organizers like the Calgary Stampede and many others who I had worked with were calling me and saying, hey, can you come back and do these environmental programs for us? And I was saying, you know, I'm really kind of busy with my other consulting work and all this other stuff, and I kind of closed that business down. You know, during the pandemic. I'd love to just like have like a DIY book. Like you know, here's the book, here you can do it yourself. In fact, everybody should know how to do this. This should be common knowledge. So that was, that was a large part of it.
Speaker 1:But what I also discovered is that after the pandemic, the whole sustainability movement had really, I think you know, like really been elevated.
Speaker 1:I think the knowledge around climate change is just so much more widespread.
Speaker 1:I think that there's a real sense that there needs to be accelerated movement on these things.
Speaker 1:I think that, from a diversity and inclusion point of view, I think there was so much awareness when all eyes in the world were glued to what was happening around Black Lives Matter and, you know, because we were all at home and watching so many important events unfold, I think there was just a greater awareness and therefore a greater demand.
Speaker 1:And so when I started to look around, I saw that there were a lot of people doing really amazing work, and so I was like, okay, well, when I was early in this space, there wasn't this ecosystem of people, so I want to tap into it, and I started to meet all these people who were saying to me yes, please finish this book. This is a really important book, and they shared these incredible stories that were entrusted to me, that I shared through this book, about events all over the world, including large climate conferences, the FIFA World Cup and many others that I think just make for really cool ways to tell the story of where we are and where we need to go when it comes to, you know, sort of really growing our audience, you know, shrinking our footprint and changing the world.
Speaker 2:Since the pandemic. What have you seen? That's kind of given you like a little bit of you know optimism or hope for events moving forward, like have you seen anything specifically within events or within the community itself? That's where they're geared towards more reusing items or using more recycled items.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I share a number of stories like that in the book. But one story that I'll highlight, that I you know it's one of my favorite stories and it's a local story and it's about the Calgary Stampede. And so I think you know everybody has their perception of the stampede. I certainly had a bit of a perception before I really got behind the scenes and worked with some wonderful people there.
Speaker 1:I write this in the book that when I first started telling people that I had been doing environmental work with the stampede, people said oh, they do that. I thought they, you know, just like, roll it up, light it on fire, shoot it out of a cannon, right? So that's, you know clearly like there's a bit of a love-hate relationship that exists with the Stampede. But when the Stampede called me and wanted me to come back and deliver these environmental programs like I had done in the past post-pandemic, I said you know what? I don't do that work anymore, but here's a few names of other people that might be able to help you. They called me back and said you know what clearly the pandemic was hard for everybody. They closed their businesses down too. Why don't you come in? And you know, let's figure out a way to work together and I said, okay, let me see what I can do. I, I called sort of there's normally a big crew that handles all the compost and recycling for the stampede. I started calling around, everybody had moved on to other things. This person's now working in banking this, you know, like everybody's like like it was a good catch-up, but uh, but uh.
Speaker 1:But I, I but I realized that getting a crew together, especially with some short notice, was going to be a challenge. And new landed immigrants from countries like Afghanistan, ukraine, syria and other countries for them, having the Calgary Stampede on their resume as their first Canadian job is a big, big deal. Right? Nobody's going to question what's that? I never heard of it. Yeah, so that's a big deal.
Speaker 1:And the fact that they got to get some really practical experience managing a waste program I was able to to train, to train them up and to train the calgary center for newcomers, who is now doing this on an ongoing basis with the calgary stampede, and a number of these, uh, these refugees uh end up getting hired by the Calgary Stampede. I think it's like just a beautiful story of like an environmental program that you know continues today. It's behind the scenes, it's like maybe unglamorous, not a lot of people know about it, but it's delivering these really valuable work experiences and having a significant social impact for these people and their families after some, you know, like tragic events that have unfolded I'm so glad to hear that they're hired on by the stampede you know, just like, so your work will go forward through them, like, yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 3:And was the calgary stampede, were they I? I know they sought you out, but were they pretty open-minded or was it kind of give and take?
Speaker 1:It's a great question, and I talk about this in the book too because I feel like this is a really important. It's a really important question because it really speaks to the issue of change management. If you're starting with a particular reality and you want to get to a reality, you know that the world needs, but we're just not there yet. How do you bridge that divide? And so the idea of change management is really, really important. It's kind of what I've been doing my whole career and so I feel like I have something to say about it. But my experience with the Calgary Stampede really, I think encapsulates this, because when I first came to them, I pitched them this idea and I basically said so, obviously, like there's you know there's some like reputational kind of issues here. But when you look at some of the low hanging fruit of like environmental programming that can exist here and I gave a number of examples there's beyond just the sort of like return on investment, you know kind of stuff if you think about it. Like the calgary stampede has this like incredible brand that is so underutilized and it's a brand that speaks to you know, like the the issue of environmental stewardship you've got. You know, like this stereotype out there of like cowboys and indians, which is like a very derogatory, very like sort of inflammatory kind of language I recognize.
Speaker 1:But the idea of like, like talking about stewardship and how indigenous peoples have stewarded this land for you know, like generations, and you know, like how agriculturalists like you want to talk to them about climate change, like they'll tell you what's happened in the last several growing cycles and how it's changing, like this idea of stewardship really should be at the heart of what this organization is and so, like, any environmental program should really speak to that and it should speak to their purpose, as it's both an organization and as terms of in terms of what they're trying to achieve in the community, what they're trying to change in the community.
Speaker 1:And so I was able to speak to them on that level. And then we started to drill down into the details of like, okay, well, where would we start? And after that meeting, that first meeting, I was invited to do like a very similar presentation four times to four different teams, and one of the people who sat through all four presentations said to me you know, I really like your approach and I think the reason your approach works is because so often people are coming in here talking to us about environmental issues and kind of like pointing their finger a little bit, like they're wagging their finger.
Speaker 2:You know, you're not doing enough here, being a little preachy, yeah.
Speaker 1:And they said you're talking to us about what we're aspiring to be.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And I believe that that is really, really important to keep in mind. It really connects us on a purpose level, and that's a large part of why I talk about purpose a lot. It's the important starting point.
Speaker 3:It's also the whole low-hanging fruit idea. Like you know, a little bit at a time, baby steps and we'll get there, instead of just you need to be at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you're getting started. But the thing is that, like, once you've got the baby steps, then you've got the experience, you've got the know-how, you've got the team, you've got the momentum, then you can start making exponential changes. But uh, but you're right, you need to start somewhere and the hardest part is taking the first step. And so once you get a few steps ahead, then then it's, you know, once you're walking, then you can start running.
Speaker 2:Do you do you think that the reason why there's so much pushback on sustainability especially, you know, in this province, is because of those misconceptions they might have with it? They might think that, like, if I have to do it, like I have to completely change my whole business strategy, or I don't want somebody preaching to me about this and this and this, and do you think that maybe those misconceptions are a little bit of the hesitation that some people might have towards sustainability?
Speaker 1:yeah, another really good question, taylor. I think that striking the right balance of like doing the practical and the inspirational is hard, right, right, and from an inspiration point of view, like we want to kind of like live in the future that we can imagine today. Right, we want to, like, you know, and we you know, when people talk about energy, for example and energy obviously is topical in this province, right, you know, people talk about electrification. They talk about, you know, like, capturing and utilizing carbon in different ways, I think for people that have like worked in an incumbent industry for a really long time, see that as like a really dramatic change. And I think that it's really important to understand, like, where people are at right now so that you could sort of, you know, do the walking before you're running, kind of thing that I talked about about. And I think that so often, and and uh, and I get why this happens. Right, like you know, if you attend like these large international climate conferences and whatnot, often they are sort of um, depicting uh the fossil fuel and industry as like the enemy or the barrier towards progress and uh, and one main reason for doing that is because it it helps to motivate uh people, uh, by like having a common sort of like like, kind of like a, like an enemy or a focal point to say, yeah, if we could just sort of like solve that, then you know, then we'll be able to get to where we need to go.
Speaker 1:But it's a kind of a dumbing down of the situation. Right, in reality, we're all, we're all in this together and what we're talking about doing is a monumental shift, and it's certainly not easy. And the reality is, you know, with an oil and gas industry that is such a significant part of the economy, like writing them off isn't really an option, and so you have to, you have to work with people, you have to like bring them along and and, frankly, like, there's just such a dramatic change in, like the values of different generations. You know millennials and gen x and and, and you know, like, baby boomers are like very different and so you have to be able to communicate with people in a way that's meaningful to them, and and and again, I keep going back to issues of values and purpose, because I think that when we can connect with people on that level, then the rest is really just details and resources, and it's kind of like okay, well, we can agree on these fundamental principles. You're not the person who's going to help me. Do you know somebody who can? Let's create the sort of the right coalition and let's move forward. So I think that that's a large part of it coalition and let's move forward. So I think that that's a large part of it.
Speaker 1:And um and the uh sort of like any hesitation that might exist around sustainability is really because I think maybe some of the approaches of um, well, I think we're in this era right now where it's sort of like, if you're a sustainability professional, you're kind of like in this dance between like, um, you know, sort of greenwash and woke lash. It's like either you're like, you know like you're, you're sort of like you're dreaming. You're you're putting rose-colored glasses on, like how much progress we've made. We're actually like so far away from like, saving the planet. Or you're like somebody that's like just um, you know like completely out to lunch and misleading, and you know like a barrier to change in reality.
Speaker 2:I think many of us are like just somewhere in the middle, trying to figure this out I yeah, I mean I think you like touched on it and it's making sense to me now. It's like I think a lot of people look at sustainability as a binary thing.
Speaker 2:It's either all in or we're not going to even bother right right and, like you said, there's a wide spectrum of things that can be done in between those two extremes. But, um, I think it's just like convincing people that it isn't just an on or off subject, like there can be a huge path if they're willing to listen.
Speaker 1:So and there's different entry points like um, uh, I am amazed like constantly, uh, how, um, you know I'll, I'll be like, I do public speaking, so I'll be introduced into an audience. You know, as, like, you know, as somebody who's done this work around climate issues and whatnot, it's kind of like okay. But then, like and Lior, he ran this sustainable events company and they diverted 100 tons of waste away from the landfill I get like a standing ovation before I even like come on this stage for some reason, like waste is like one of those things because you, like you said right, it's so visible, people have seen like the impact of it. You talked about cleanliness earlier. It's something that's so visible to people and so tangible that, like, they are quite motivated about it, whereas I think that, um, unfortunately I don't think it needs to be um, but I think that climate is still a bit of a divisive issue for some people.
Speaker 1:But I think that, um, you know, getting back to what I was saying before about sort of like, uh, how fossil fuels have been demonized in this conversation, I think that if we instead say, like what we should demonize is inaction, like as long as you're doing something, then I think you're in the camp and the idea that like in reality, like, yeah, whatever, wherever you can sort of like what's most material to you in terms of like, okay, this is the impact we're having.
Speaker 1:So this is where we we need to start. But we, we need to be able to demonstrate some credibility, and it might be that we start with these things that are very low-hanging fruit. They're very visible, they're very, they're meaningful to, to our audience, and so we're, we're going to make a difference and uh, and just, I think whatever, whatever issue it is that brings you into that space is really important like go at it and own it and communicate the results, and that's, I think, a big part of how you demonstrate credibility and you get. You get the you, you get the people around you who are going to help you get to the next level.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Do you ever find you have to sometimes tantalize a company by telling them how much money they can save dollar-wise on sustainability? Like to grease the wheels a bit.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's a good question and I think that, like, because it exists, like it's a thing, like cost savings is a thing, yeah, yeah, but I so, like I do consulting right, and as a consultant, like you know, like there's like a separation of like here's what I would love to see happen and versus like here's what the data says. Right, I find that it does help to have other companies who say, yeah, we made these changes. You know, we went from like we identified, like, the areas where we were emitting the most greenhouse gas emissions and we made these investments. Yeah, it wasn't, you know, it was a big hit up front, but then, over time, like we've, this is how long it took us to pay it back, like, I'd like to just highlight their stories and and that's I think that's important to do is to talk to people about, you know, what's working for others.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, I think that, like, if you know, if, like you, I think it's a dangerous place to be, like, where you say, well, how much of a return can I get on that? You know? Um, you know, there's this famous I think it's kurt vonnegay who who is like, uh, his quote, and I'm gonna butcher it. I'm sorry, but like we might go down in history as like the first civilization that didn't save ourselves because there wasn't enough of a return on investment. And so I think that, at the end of the, it is important to talk about it from a values point of view, from a, you know, like here's what's possible and it is what your consumers, your partners, your audience wants. And then, yeah, like, figure out how to make money at it once you're starting to create the action, to do the work.
Speaker 2:Excellent.
Speaker 2:No, I think the subject of your book is really important, like a community based um or an event based, but also, like we are, a podcast that deals with film and art and music, and one thing that I think is notable is that, especially in the art community, use whatever you have without having to go find new stuff or whatever is so crucial to artists across the board.
Speaker 2:Um, that I think, um, there there's a good connection between, like art, uh, music, film, especially, um, with your ideas and um, I think it would be great to, like you know, highlight a bit more of that. Like I said, even like today we were discussing with the crew, it's like, use what we have Because it's what we have, and it really, I think, inspires the creativeness in artists as well as to be like, oh, I'd love to have this, and again, we don't. So how are we going to figure this out? And I think, if there's a way that, like you know, the business community could be inspired as much as, like, the artistic community about the same subject, that maybe it would be an easier pill for some people to swallow. That's just what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. I think that's a nice note to end on. And, yeah, I'm really excited to be here on your podcast. I think it's such a great thing you're doing with this podcast and I'm really excited to be launching this book. So thank you for amplifying it at a moment where you know I'm really just trying to get this book out there into into the world well, this has been great, and I'm glad you showed up in such a beautiful shirt too thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very summery. Yeah, I'm excited about looking great. Thank you, it's very summery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited about the summer season, for sure. Okay, so we are now joined with Abby. We had just talked about how sustainability is so important to the art community, so, abby, would you like to introduce yourself to the audience?
Speaker 4:Yeah, of course. So my name is Abby, I go by she her pronouns and I run the Are you Home Yet? Collective with my creative partner Nix, and a big part of our philosophy is that sustainability piece. So most of our pieces are made with waste materials, sustainable things, whatever recycled goods we can find and get our hands on we like to use in our art. So, yeah, Excellent.
Speaker 2:Why did you guys choose to go down the route of using sustainable products for your art?
Speaker 4:Ultimately, I think it really comes down to like during my childhood those were the things that I had around. Aside from sustainability, it was just resourcefulness. It was creating with what you can and and seeing what you could make with it, like a lot of my toys. Growing up, my favorite things to play with were things that I made myself, like dollhouses and that kind of stuff. But then when I went into the art world, I kind of ignored that part for a bit until when I started working with Nix again, it became that necessity thing of how do we make art together well, and we really care about sustainability.
Speaker 4:So it was very natural to gravitate towards these materials that we found people throwing out, especially in the theater community. It can be so wasteful, because I work a lot as a set painter as well and you'll paint a whole set for a show and then it'll get torn down as soon as the show is done and a lot of it gets thrown out, um, which is kind of heartbreaking. So we really wanted to try and like with our art and with our theater, break past that, you know. Yeah excellent.
Speaker 2:Um uh, I believe you've met Lior.
Speaker 1:Do you guys want to talk a little bit about how you guys met? I'm happy to lead off and really just yeah shout out to Sandra Neal, who runs Sparrow Art Space. She had Abby Nix as the resident artist and when I was talking to her about my launch event for my book, she connected us and suggested that we explore collaboration together. So I'm really excited to be announcing that that we are collaborating together on this, this book launch event.
Speaker 4:Totally. Yeah, sandra just reached out to us and and it was actually a very serendipitous connection, so we felt like we had a lot of things in common and we wanted to. We definitely thought we really aligned in the way that we were thinking and definitely wanted to put our hand in what you were doing, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks. And you know there's a funny thing when you write a book about sustainability and you have a launch event, there's, you know, there's some expectation that the event itself will be as sustainable as possible, and that's actually like a privilege to be able to do that through you know the art of, you know event making and event producing and trying to kind of like create the inception of an idea for people that this is what events should look like all the time, idea for people that this is what events should look like all the time. And so, um, I am really lucky to be able to, uh, you know, work with, uh artists like abby and nix, who are helping to visually present what it could look like when you're creating something beautiful out of reused material, and I think it just like tells the story of what we're trying to do here really really well. So, yeah, like feel free to feel free to like get into a little bit about what we're what we're planning.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so part of what we were talking about is wanting to people, wanting people to bring in materials that they've gotten from a lot of events that they've been a part of. So I know, going to a lot of conventions and events and even theater events there tends to be a lot of waste of t-shirts and swag and even packaging of things. Typically, there tends to be a lot of waste. So we're hoping to have people bring these kinds of items in and we're going to add it into a big collaborative art piece within the space, kind of paying homage to even like the title, what's called the title cover of the book. There's the trees all over it. So we're going to build a collective tree together with all the people who are there adding their own pieces onto it and gathering amongst this tree as a community.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So if you're coming to this launch event and hope that people will May 9th at the Calgary Central Library and bring your swag, bring your old lanyards name tags and it will be featured as part of this art installation that Abby and Nix are creating.
Speaker 4:And a big part of our philosophy, Nix and I, is witnessing people. So one of the aspects of it is we were going to ask people what their experiences were like. If they don't necessarily have something they can bring, they can tell us about an experience or write it down and add that piece onto the tree. So there is a lot of room for collaboration and for people to, you know, add their own stuff to this tree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just love how it's. You know, the whole idea is that it's a community coming together and so it's the community really growing. This tree will sort of sprout as a result of all the input that people are are contributing.
Speaker 3:That sounds so much cooler than what I imagined, and I was going to ask you about like, oh, do you and Nick's have certain pieces, but this is like a whole different level and it seems amazing yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Really like that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we've been kind of prototyping what that's going to look like. So we're going to pre-build a tree like in its frame, uh, bring that in and then, um, from there we'll kind of add people's pieces onto it. So something we've been working on it for this week. We're going to keep working on it until the book launch awesome.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited, yeah I'm so excited.
Speaker 4:It's going to be, yeah, like five feet tall, so it's going to be like a big art piece.
Speaker 2:It'll sit there for for a while after oh yeah, I was going to ask you like is it going to be in the library as an installation then?
Speaker 1:I hope so. We, we, we're still, uh, chatting with the library about that, but that's the intention, yeah is that it will be a piece that continues to live in that space for a while and one way or another, the piece will live on beyond the event.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's something we were talking about, Like it won't get thrown out, it won't get recycled after. I feel like that happens a lot with recycled art pieces is it's like, well, we made the thing and now people have seen it and you can just kind of throw it out now, but it's kind of defeats the purpose for me. So we're going to keep it in storage and it will probably have another life at some point, as all things do.
Speaker 3:Actually, you might be inspiring Christmas generations, you know, instead of putting up the tree in the traditional way.
Speaker 4:Yeah, let's make a tree sustainable christmas tree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great I like that you're onto something let's make it a thing, yeah, around christmas for sure junk trees yeah, love it.
Speaker 2:Um, I like that idea, like if you could keep it in as an installation in the library because I mean, then it could actually be an ongoing thing, because people can still come in even after the event and add if they need to. Totally, that's exciting, like I can't wait to see it actually. Yeah, so the event is May 9th at the Calgary Public Library.
Speaker 3:Central Memorial, that's right sorry, Central Memorial I'm thinking of the one off 4th Street it's the Calgary Central Library the big one, the really beautiful one, the big one, the big one, the beautiful, the really beautiful one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I actually like the library, um, and what they're doing. I was in there a couple weeks ago having to print off some scripts and they had, like, swing dance classes going on in there and they're like like how come the libraries when I was growing up didn't have that kind of stuff going on?
Speaker 1:so yeah, I definitely want to check out the library more often because it is a cool space yeah, yeah, I think I think we're in a really interesting era where, yeah, there has been more investment into the, you know, public libraries and I think that's just a recognition of the fact that these are not just, uh, where people go to sign out books, but these are, you know, there used to be like, you know, like legions and community centers and like these things that were like the heart of the city.
Speaker 1:I think that the library has really filled that void and I think that these are central pillars of our community that void and I think that these are central pillars of our community. And having young kids who frequent the library so we're there a lot the idea that it's promoting literacy, that it's really helping people to really gain knowledge as a way to create the future that we need young people to help us create, is really powerful and, as a first-time author, so huge learning experience for me. But the idea of being in this space and launching my book in a space that is promoting literacy is something that was really important for me and I feel like the Cal is just does such a beautiful job in this city.
Speaker 4:So, oh, yeah, very proud to to to be part of that space and really exciting that we can bring our collaboration to that space as well yeah, it'll actually be Nix's and I's second ever performance in that space, because when we were doing the festival animated objects, we also did a little bit of a wander around in that area within the library with other people who are part of the festival and, yeah, I feel like every time I'm there. It just supports the community, it supports the people and the people who need it the most.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that's the thing I love the most yeah, and isn't it great that, like, the library is free for anybody to attend? Oh, and how it's changed.
Speaker 3:Like it's not the classic library of you know it's interactive, people are talking learning from each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it. I think I like about the the new library is that it's. It's it is a communal kind of thing, like it's not just a place where you can, like you said, go and borrow books, but it's like, like a friend of mine was telling me, like they actually have like studios in there where you can like set up like that's right, or recording areas. They have green screens, they have like office, um places where you can have conferences and meetings, and it's like it's definitely not the library of old. So, yeah, um, yeah, no, I'm, I'm thrilled uh that you guys uh were able to, you know, meet up and do this, because I think it's going to be a very successful, very interesting book launch.
Speaker 1:Wish you guys all the best on it love to see you there, love to see everybody there talking about the event.
Speaker 2:Is there a website or anything people can go to to get tickets to the event, or is it just free.
Speaker 1:Thank you for asking that. Yeah, so it is something that's ticketed. So if you go to Liorca, all the details are there. It's an Eventbrite reservation system, eventbrite reservation system and it is ticketed. But we also have inclusive pricing and want to make sure that anybody who wants to be there is able to to go, and so it's. It's like a there's a free, like complimentary admission available and like a $20 admission that's available to help offset some of the costs of the space, the installations that we're going to have, the food that we're going to serve, the entertainment that we're going to have. It's going to be a lot of really cool surprises and so really excited to be rolling them out slowly as we do the announcements, but also really excited to be rolling them out slowly as we do the announcements, but also hopefully give something that's unexpected, especially for anybody who's been to a book launch event. I think this is going to be a pretty unconventional book launch and hopefully you'll think it's an unconventional book.
Speaker 2:Excellent. We're all about unconventional, so you've sold me on it. I wanted to actually just talk a little bit about your method for using reused stuff for your art, sort of like specific idea you have or does. Do you find the material first and then make the art, or do you specifically go after a specific type of material to use when you're using your art?
Speaker 4:I think it it really depends from piece to piece. I think both inform each other. Sometimes I'm really looking at materiality. Um, I know, when I was doing magpie and Squirrel, the first thing I ever had was just the texture of corrugated cardboard. I just knew that to me looked like feathers and from that it spurned the whole thing.
Speaker 4:So I do know that sometimes it is the materiality of it that makes me think well, this could bring me to this, but sometimes it is more so the subject matter, like for this piece it was more seeing the trailer for your book launch and seeing the cover of it and like reading pieces of it, I just felt like the tree was calling to me and then, knowing that wood was kind of the materiality I was going towards, then, okay, cardboard, cardboard I know well, I have a lot of that makes sense. So sometimes the material justifies what I'm making. Sometimes it's opposite, but I really do like seeing what I get and getting to work with that. Especially, I have access to a lot of like, odd trash, like I work in the pop shop at the University of Calgary quite often and there's often scraps of random things that they're throwing out that I'm like, oh, I'll just take these and I'm gonna make my own little thing.
Speaker 4:Um, and that's honestly my favorite way to work is when you see what you have and then see what comes out of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, nice are you ever just walking around and your eyes are too big for your pockets?
Speaker 4:oh yeah, no, literally stuff like it's become a thing now where I will look through every trash can that I see, like when I'm passing by, like I'll just take a little glance and if I see something that like catches my eye and it doesn't look too messy like, I'll take it um 100. I go home with just trash in my pockets most of the time. My friends all know now that I collect this stuff, so they'll like finish their like snack or whatever. They're like Abby, do you want this?
Speaker 4:And I'm like, yes, I do and I put it in my bag, because that's like yeah, so it a hundred percent comes from the spaces I'm around, the people I'm around and you know that kind of thing, excellent, awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, any questions. And you know that kind of thing. Excellent, awesome. Um, yeah, any questions there? Oh, no, not at the moment.
Speaker 2:Just sounds great, sounds lovely it does sound great excited about it um, yeah, I think we'll do one last plug for the event may 9th, calgary central library. The book is how we gather matters.
Speaker 1:Uh, the author is leor and uh thank you for being here, leor, and we'll see you on may the 9th yeah, thank you so much for having me and uh, abby, I've been uh really enjoying uh looking at so many of other pieces of your works. This is great to be able to pull this all together, thank you Excellent.
Speaker 3:Thank you, hi, ryan.
Speaker 2:Hey Tay. So have you ever considered doing a residency in an art studio?
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Excellent. There's a place I want to tell you about. It's called Sparrow Art Space. It's located in Bridgeland, here in the lovely Calgary, and they do a monthly artist in residency. Every month it changes. Go to their website, you can sign up and if you ever want to show your art, whatever forms of art it is, check them out. Would you be interested? Absolutely perfect, excellent. Uh, the great thing about sparrow is that they. I love their motto. It's creativity, community and collaboration, kind of like what we do. It's we're all on the same page here. So if you want to be an artist in residency and you want to showcase your artwork, check out Sparrow Artspace. You can check them out at sparrowartspacecom and hopefully one day we'll see your work there.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to the Artsy Dudes. We have Nix joining us, along with Abby again from the Are you Home Yet? Collective.
Speaker 2:And yeah, thank you guys for being here.
Speaker 5:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:So, abby, you did a little introduction about yourself earlier. Nix, would you like to just introduce yourself to the audience?
Speaker 5:Yeah for sure, my name is Nix, my pronouns are they, them. I am primarily a theater artist, but in meeting Abby I started branching out more into visual arts and I did a lot of textile art before that and so I'm just expanding my horizons and trying to mix all of them into one weird art form that is theater and visual art and crochet all in one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exciting yeah um, do you guys want to just touch a little bit on about how you guys initially met?
Speaker 5:yeah, yeah, we went to school, but we were not close at all for the almost the entire time that I was in university and we had an acting class together where we were doing some movement pieces based on Shakespeare scenes, and when we were doing the performances of them, my scene partner was sick and so I didn't get to perform. So I had to do a second performance like a week later, and I was worried that no one was going to come. So I texted everyone I knew and was like hey, can you come watch my performance? Because I don't want to do this for no one, and Abby was one of the people that came.
Speaker 5:I don't know what went through your head but, after that, you were like I want to work together.
Speaker 4:Well, I think it was like a very like all the stars collided into one thing in that moment because, like I just stayed after class to watch your performance I think some, like one of my friends, were going. So I was like, okay, I'll just I'll go to this thing and I just remember watching your performance and seeing it and I was like I see someone that I really want to work with and someone that I see myself in. Like we are very similar in the way that we move, in the way that we create, and like. So I was like, ok, this is someone I want to work with. And then someone that day had also told me about the 24 hour play 24 hour play festival that was happening at our school and I was like, oh, I want to do that, but I don't know who I'm going to do it with and I don't know what I would do. So I just kept going along with my day.
Speaker 4:And then later that day, I had an art class and he started talking about something like an art piece and a project that we were doing and it was based on. He showed us this artist that does a lot of movement as well as art, and I was like I want to do that. Who could I do that with? Where could I do that? And then all three things came into one thing and I was like I literally ran to the DOS where Nick's was, and and I was like, hey, crazy idea, do you want to do this thing with me? I don't know what it is, but it's like it's going to be a movement and like art thing and it's going to be during the 24-hour play festival.
Speaker 5:And you said I blindly agreed because I thought you were cool and it sounded like a cool project. So our first thing that we did together was stay up 24 hours straight to build a show. Yeah, so bold project. For the first time, working together and not knowing if we were going to like each other, but it worked out and now we're here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been almost a year since then, which has been crazy, and I just remember really, in that moment, kind of finding a pocket of theater that I just loved and resonated and like, yeah, just like being able to witness each other for 24 hours and then create something out of it, it was like, ah, this is what we want to do. Yeah, and we want to keep doing this totally. So let's just do it with each other. Yeah, because we know we can. Yeah nice.
Speaker 2:What was, uh? What did you end up actually doing for the project?
Speaker 5:It's our piece behind us. It was a mix of poetry and movement and drawing on this old roofing tile, and so we were given a prompt for the 24-hour play festival, which was Sprout Up, and so we had both just gone through some bad breakups, like the week or so before, and we were really in our feels.
Speaker 5:So we were just, yeah, totally, especially for art like yeah, cry it out and make something cool oh no, definitely not, definitely never done yeah, so the first couple hours of working on the project, we just sat and we talked to each other and like cried in front of each other and we were like, wow, we kind of went through some similar stuff. Why don't we use that for the show? Because part of the 24-hour play festival is that you can't have an idea going into it. You've got to go in kind of blindly. And we just were witnessing each other and we really resonated with that and we decided, yeah, let's just run with it.
Speaker 5:And so we spent the first little bit listening to music and then writing a bunch of poetry and kind of breaking apart the poetry into different sections so we could combine it all. And we had this role and we were like how can we do that at the same time? And it all just kind of fell together. We had no idea how it was going to turn out, but we made a lot of people cry. So I think it was a success, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's kind of great coloring over the darkness, totally.
Speaker 4:You know, with color.
Speaker 5:Let's make it better, brighter. Totally 100% and the last scene in the performance was us inviting everyone in the audience to come add their color to it too. So it was like we're going through a breakup but we've got all these wonderful people around us. So it's like sad, but it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 4:Yeah it's all about seeing each other. Yeah, ultimately wanting to be seen, through that heartache, and when you find that community who can see you, it makes the pain less. Yeah, you know, leaning on the people around you and finding those commonalities and then letting that heal you. Yeah, I, it was something that it just aligned with a lot of things going on at life. In in that moment it was just so good. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:After that project, what was the next project you guys worked on?
Speaker 5:what was the next one? I want to think it's the questions.
Speaker 4:oh, you're right. So it it was like spring semester and we were like, well, we want to like make an art collective together, um, and we would spend a lot of time just sitting on this bench talking about like, okay, what do we want to do? And a lot of are you home? Yet came from wanting to to find home and community in a space like the university, which felt very distance. It felt very isolated, like we were all kind of going about doing our own thing and we wanted to try and unify people.
Speaker 4:So what we did was we came up with I don't know, I think it was like 15 questions or something like that, and we had chalk and we went around campus and we wrote all of these questions around and they were all based on like love, and we would leave a chalk there for people to answer, and people would answer, but they would also sometimes just, um, just walk by and read it. I think to me just having a moment to stop, read that question, take it in and be like, oh, okay, I thought about that, and to move on. Um, that was something that we wanted to try and build within our community, was that? And also getting answers from the community, witnessing from them to build off what our next project would be. Yeah, Nice.
Speaker 2:So that was kind of the start of the sorry what was the name of the collective. Are you Home Yet?
Speaker 4:Are you home yet?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:We can explain it. So are you home yet? It's a text that is often sent if your friend is out and they've been out for a while and they haven't texted you that they've gotten home. Are you home yet? And it's something that is kind of a way to reach out to make sure that they're safe and that they've gotten home. And we wanted to ask that to our community, you know, to our people of like are you home yet? What makes you feel like home? And, if you aren't home, like there's a home with us. It came out of this like saying I think it is that we're all just walking each other home, and we wanted to kind of pay homage to that with Are you Home Yet?
Speaker 5:I was also kind of born out of. I was about to leave university it was like my last semester there and we had just started working together and we were feeling a little weird about like is it gonna work at all? And I think both of us were feeling a little bit like I have no idea what home is or who home is, and so we had started to find it with each other and we just really resonated.
Speaker 5:We talked about a lot of names for our collective and I don't even remember who came up with. Are you Home Yet? But as soon as it was said, we were both like, yeah, that's it. That's the feeling that we're trying to convey, and feel with each other and want to feel with our community. So yeah, totally nice.
Speaker 3:Well, it's just like your first project was kind of like a precursor for the whole general idea, I guess just being there for each other and yeah, that's amazing. But you were saying you two live like far away from each other, like is it hard to get?
Speaker 5:together Totally opposite sides of the city, like we're equidistant from here, but opposite directions in the city, so it's not easy for us to find space together, which is why we're very grateful to be in Sparrow, because we have a common space where we have room to work on projects. That isn't like Abby booking a room at the university and going, or like trying to work in one of our basements, which is not bad. It's good to work in a basement every once in a while, but it's nice to have space together.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah and when we are apart, I do find that the art itself kind of becomes a communication. Um, it's a way that we actually do get to collaborate and talk, like, uh, I know there was a lot of time when we were working on Magpie and Squirrel where we were so busy and we were so in our own thing where we were just working, but like I built the guts of their tail and then they decorated it, and they built the guts of my wings and I decorated it, and that was kind of like how we were able to continue working with each other, in conversation with each other was like through creation as well, and I found that was really really like satisfying, important to me. Yeah, because even if I couldn't communicate with you, like we were still. We were still connected yeah, yeah, totally yeah.
Speaker 5:the first time we saw each other with the finished things was doing the performance, so we were very busy trying to get it all together. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:And how did the idea for Magpie and Squirrel come about?
Speaker 5:The same bench that we would always sit on for the 24-hour play and just like chatting about our collective. Would always sit on for the 24-hour play and just like chatting about our collective. We had a day there where we were watching a magpie try to break into a plastic bag that had like chips or something in it, yeah and we sat there and we, like we eventually rescued the bag to get away and like, not choke the magpie.
Speaker 5:But then, as that was happening, a bunch of squirrels were jumping across the tree on top of us and then a squirrel ran and jumped into the trash and was trying to dig into the trash and we were like that's really cool.
Speaker 4:I was like, wouldn't it be funny if we did like a kind of like clowny show, like a mass show of like a magpie and a squirrel.
Speaker 4:We're like, yeah, that would be really funny. And I was like, well, I've been meaning to build a bird suit. So what if we build a bird suit and a squirrel suit? And originally it was just going to be a show at the university that we were just going to. Let's just do it out in that courtyard where we typically sit. We'll just do it there. And then we saw the Festival of Animated Objects, that they were looking for submissions for the Wonder Briefs, and we were like, well, we have a show. I don't know how likely it is that we're going to get chosen, but let's just like put it in there and we'll see. And lo and behold, we got into it and like, from there it's just been kind of like snowballing of more and more stuff, yeah, with magpie and squirrel, and yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're going to be actually performing again as Magpie and Squirrel during Folk Fest this year.
Speaker 4:Oh nice, so it'll be cool. So if people didn't get to see it at the festival and they want to see Magpie and Squirrel, it'll be at Folk Fest probably.
Speaker 3:Sweet. I think on your Instagram too, you have a photo of the bench like the birthplace yeah, yeah yeah, that's awesome yeah, we like still go there like every time we're at the university.
Speaker 4:We still sit on that bench sometimes, um and like have our conversations and look at things. I think it's cool to go back to the birthplace, for sure, and that's also why we had the bench in the display as well, because we wanted to pay homage to our bench that we have, and that's why they kind of sit there. It's like us sitting on the bench.
Speaker 3:That's great. Are you going to carry forward with the squirrel and magpie as a constant, or are you just playing it by ear?
Speaker 4:We're kind of playing it by ear. We have a lot of love for Magpie and Squirrel and like. Wherever the opportunities arise to use them, like 100%, we'll use them. But we also are developing lots of different projects, all with the same kind of philosophy of using waste and trash. Before this project we hadn't really explored as much of this material, but as soon as I got my hands on using this kind of stuff it just like exploded into a thousand other things that we're gonna do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah for sure, excellent. Well, abby kind of touched on the reason they're so into using sustainable products.
Speaker 5:Do you?
Speaker 2:want to actually explain why it's so important to you as well.
Speaker 5:Yeah, for sure, I have always been very aware of sustainability. Most of my mentors in theater have been climate artists. Mentors in theater have been climate artists, and so one of the first things that I did that really clicked with me as a theater artist was a program called Dreaming Climate Consciousness, which is run by someone named Evan Med, and it's a theater program to help kind of face fears about climate change and like. Climate change is a very scary topic to think about, and theater and art is a way to humanize it and make it something that you're not going through alone and something that you can share with other people, because we're all going through it together.
Speaker 5:But it's overwhelming to just think about facts and like I would always get stuck on. Well, what am I doing like? What is my impact on the environment? And every time I drive my car, am I destroying a tree somewhere and so doing art and using sustainable materials? I think, even though we're really small and it's maybe not going to affect everything, I think seeing people use sustainable materials will start spreading, and I'm hoping that if we continue to do this, then bigger theater companies like which are very wasteful in general will be able to maybe start doing stuff like this and, just you know, have everyone be aware that we're living in a really awesome world and it would be really awesome to keep it so nice and keep it so wonderful. So I just I don't know. I love sustainability and I love sharing sustainability with people, so that it's not something that you're thinking about at night and having nightmares about yeah yeah well, and to me it's like it's like recontextualizing a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 4:That for me, I feel like helps in the bringing visibility to these things. Um, I think often we get we just throw out our trash and it feels like almost easy. We get it gets repetitive and you just, oh, it's just another thing that you throw out. Um, but like looking at like the wings and at the head and all these things, um, they're all made out of stuff that we all have. You know, um paper waste and snack wrappers and like you can actually look at them and see like, oh, rice krispies, I eat rice krispies and like seeing them as something beautiful that you just so easily cast aside I think helps people understand that it's like no, there is a value in making sure that you are not being wasteful, making sure that these things are going into good things like recycling, if you can and I know recycling is sometimes not yeah you know, but you know it's, it's the things that we can try and aim towards and try and do better and yeah there is an odd comfort with it.
Speaker 3:I was looking at your wings and I just saw like a boston pizza mint wrapper and I'm like oh boston pizza.
Speaker 2:I was just looking at um squirrel there and I'm like the white bit is sheet music.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just looking at that too.
Speaker 4:I'm like, oh nice, yeah, there's like there's scripts from little things I had to do in university. There's like a McDonald's bag, like it's all really things that.
Speaker 3:Like. This is almost an idea machine in itself. You could just look at it and it's just. It stimulates you.
Speaker 5:Totally yeah.
Speaker 4:It's amazing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks and it's just crazy because like it's out of sight, out of mind, like we have our landfills and you never think about it, but there's just so much stuff out there oh yeah, like just so much things, like we almost have like all the stuff we need and yeah, yeah, when you start collecting, that's when you really like start to see how much like, yeah, for every handful of trash that I take out, there's like landfills and landfills and landfills more of what I have. Like there's one wing, that's just craft dinner boxes. If you think of, like I use like a pack of Kraft dinner boxes, like the amount of packs of Kraft dinner boxes that there are in the world, like right now in people's homes, like it's just, yeah, it can all get a lot for sure, for sure. But I think using things like this can help you see value in these things. You know, maybe not everything has to be thrown out. Maybe it can be value in these things. You know, um, maybe not everything has to be thrown out.
Speaker 5:Maybe it can be repurposed, maybe it can be be reused or minimized, you know um yeah, and I think, even if it's not like inspiring people to all of a sudden like oh, I'm also gonna make a mask out of garbage I think just seeing that it is made out of garbage will help people be more aware of like oh, I've got a lot of this stuff. Maybe I can. I don't have to make something, but I can be more aware of like oh, I've got a lot of this stuff. Maybe I can. I don't have to make something, but I can be more conscious of what I'm doing with it as I get rid of it Totally.
Speaker 2:Do you find, when you guys are doing your like, performative aspects, like when you're interacting with the people you're doing your performances with do they know that it's made out of recycled stuff?
Speaker 5:I think for squirrel that it's made out of recycled stuff. I think for squirrel it's obvious. I think, like with the tail and the mask it's not as painted as magpie was, so you can tell like you can see the sheet music, you can see the rappers in squirrel. So when I have been interacting with people as squirrel it's always like is that made out of like garbage? I always get that, but I think people have to take a double take when you're being magpie.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's like at a distance, people will just be like amazed by like, oh, this thing. And then they get closer to it and they start to like see the kind of detailing in the feathers there's like mixed in trash in there, of detailing in the feathers there's like mixed in trash in there. And they start to see these things and I do see like, oh, is that? Oh, oh, wow. And then like people will start picking apart, like I, one of my favorite things is like, like, what you were doing, like spot the trash of like oh, there's a, there's a Rice Krispie in there. Oh, there's a, there's a Nutri-Grain bar. Like people can see these things and like see themselves in it, almost because they know that they've, you know they've done it yeah, so I remember like the first time I saw you guys perform was actually at the um festival of animated objects.
Speaker 2:I went to the dolly wiggler yeah, and um, it's the first time I saw you guys walking around and I actually pointed out like, oh look, there's a crow and a squirrel, yeah um but when I saw you guys performing like it's like, it didn't cross my mind at all that this was made out of recycled materials because I I saw and I'm like those are really cool, uh like costumes and stuff like that. And then when I found out that it is recycled stuff, I'm like wow, that's very impressive.
Speaker 4:So yeah, yeah, um, I think the idea for the trash also came from just like I don't know. There's this parallel between us and as as people and as as animals, that like we all kind of lean towards, uh, these items because it's easy, it's convenient, you know, and I think that's something that I wanted to show is like oh, we are just as close to these animals as they are to us. We are affecting their behavior, they're affecting our behavior, and this is kind of like how the world is at this point where, you know, as animals, they're adapting, we're adapting with them. And to like, bring that into spaces like Dolly Wiggler. That was something that we wanted to kind of show that, like, in this like formal performance setting, there's also nature. You know there's also waste and, yeah, bringing them in.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and on a not like sustainability note, but just in general as an artist, it's really expensive to get material and you don't always get paid a lot, so to be able to make something that maybe people don't even realize is trash is pretty cool to be able to do with materials that we dumpster dived for so yeah, 100 do you have a specific go to place for finding artistic gold she doesn't want to give?
Speaker 4:away her secret well, I'll happily give my secrets away. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of trash out there. There's a lot of great places and what I find is like the community is the best space um finding what you have access to. Like I work in the pop shop a lot um at the university, so obviously there's a lot of trash in there that I can take um. But even like we go to businesses around here like uh, down the street, and we'll see like, oh, there's, there's cardboard boxes and they're recycling. When we get takeout we have our own stuff that we were like oh, this box is nice, let's just put that in our little thing there. Yeah, so it really comes from the places that we interact with, the people we interact with.
Speaker 5:Once people start knowing that you're looking for trash and like wasteful things, you start getting people donating stuff because no one wants to deal with it. Once you've got a build-up of waste and they're like oh, these weird artists are gonna take it off my hands. Yeah, I'll give it to you.
Speaker 3:So yeah, sold yeah yeah, 100.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been cool yeah excellent um.
Speaker 2:So any plans, i't know in the future for you guys to like expand with your kind of junk art, so to speak, like you want to try to do different things Like. When I think junk art, I instantly go to like either like um recycled materials or metalworking or anything like that Well, we're continuing to develop more kind of shows with using all of the stuff that we've accumulated.
Speaker 4:Like we're working on a few shows right now, some in using kind of like yarn and string waste. We have one using a lot of the cardboard waste we have. We're hoping to build two houses and we're going to do a show about being a child of the cardboard we have. We're hoping to build two houses and we're going to do a show about being a child of divorce. As you know, we're both children of divorce and I think it's more common like nowadays you're seeing it more and more. So we wanted to make a show about kind of being split between two homes. But you know, outside of taking it, taking it outside of shows that are like immediately lend themselves to trash, like that show isn't necessarily something that's about trash, but we're going to continue to use these materials and the the style that we've kind of created.
Speaker 5:Yeah, nice and now that we're getting more people donating stuff to us, like we've had waste and stuff from construction sites and things like that. So I think, once we start getting comfortable with our smaller shows like this I would love to be able to do like a fully staged theater production that's made out of all the recycled materials we have, just as we start collecting more and get better at using it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, eventually get into welding, and just yeah, oh, I want to do welding so bad actually, for real yeah, my mind instantly as the film guy went to like set construction and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah um, it's very expensive to start from scratch but I mean it'd just be so cool to do something that's just completely recycled yeah items as well, I mean just a large scale?
Speaker 4:yeah, that'd be awesome oh yeah, yeah, it's something that I definitely like want to try and get into because I think more spaces can use those kind of uh thinking in that kind of creation method. Uh, because it really does lend itself to stuff. If you are looking out there for art, for these like supplies, I guess for good trash, then you know there's always something that you can make out of that, and it does. It does save money, but it also makes really cool art, I find, just because you are forced to work with what you have.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you've got to be inventive when you don't have exactly what you need and you need to make it out of something else Like your creativity just has to be going so that you can make it work, it's true.
Speaker 2:Excellent oh.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I was just kind of thinking about just the whole, like you know, coming from you know divorced parents and living in separate homes, that kind of nature, but also the title of your collective. It's like am.
Speaker 4:I no 100%.
Speaker 3:Anyhow, just a random thought there.
Speaker 2:That's the whole. You're found family kind of thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's definitely something I feel like you can struggle with as a kid. Um, feeling not at home in one space or another space and feeling caught in between two spaces um, that's something that we definitely could relate with within each other, which goes back to how we really create is just finding the places where we intersect, just knowing that if we intersect on that, then there are so many more people out there who also relate with what we're relating with. Yeah, cool.
Speaker 2:So you want to talk a little bit about how you uh found spirit yeah, um, it was very.
Speaker 4:Yet another like I don't know very destiny things happen to nix and I, where we like, yeah, wouldn't it be cool if this thing and then it just like kind of happens? Um, because I think it was literally the same conversation on the same bench when you were talking about magpie and squirrel, when we first discovered that, where we were like crazy thing and I don't like maybe this is a future goal, but wouldn't it be nice to have like kind of an art space where we get to create together and then, like the next day I think you sent it to me right- yeah, we saw the call for submissions to be the artists in residence at Sparrow.
Speaker 5:It was just a post that somehow ended up on my Instagram the day after the conversation we had had about getting an art space, and so we were like I guess we have to apply, like this is a sign, I'm sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um and we had no idea what we were doing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, we were like barely started. Are you home yet? We had no like idea what our goals were, and we were just like let's write this application and see what happens.
Speaker 4:And then it turned out well oh yeah, I think we've had that kind of like thought process for a lot of our things of just like, well, I don't know if it's gonna happen, I don't know if we're like experienced enough for this, but let's just like try. Yeah, let's just like do it and, like you know, practice over perfection, we're just gonna like make mistakes until we make it, because we just want to make art, and I think that was something that we both really aligned ourselves on, and so we were like willing to just like throw ourselves at whatever, whatever thing. But it's been really nice. We've been doing like workshops, um with like people in the community. Specifically, like we've had a lot of kids, which has been great.
Speaker 4:Um, both of us work with children a lot. Um like I'm also getting education in my degree as well uh like to do like high school education and like that kind of stuff. So, definitely, like working with kids is something that is really important to us. So getting to like be in a community, be amongst people and uh create with them, it's been really, really fun, excellent yeah, um.
Speaker 2:So, when it comes to workshops, what do you guys? Um what kind?
Speaker 5:of workshops do you have coming up? So we do drop-in workshops and they're just called drop-in trash art because we don't want to like box anyone into a certain thing that they want to make. So we've got our collection of trash and we invite people in and we have some examples of things you can make and you can look around at our stuff. But essentially we just want to give people a space where they don't have to have the pressure of like starting a painting on a nice canvas or using up expensive clay, but just like there's a whole bunch of stuff, make something and it's going to be cool, and you don't have to make it perfect because it's made out of garbage, so there's no pressure. So ideally, like the space and the workshop space is for play and experimentation and just make something cool with the stuff. You don't have to bring anything because we find a bunch of stuff and just see where your brain goes.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, yeah, because play is really also important to our kind of like philosophy, and especially this month, what we wanted to do was just have space to play around and do whatever creative stuff we wanted, because we were so like used to creating on a deadline that we were like, no, let's just like play, let's just like make random stuff and see what's possible and see what happens out of that, and then to give other people the space to do that Specifically. I know, like the kids, it's wild, like when you give them the space and the tools, like what they make. It's it's like surprising, like we didn't. We often didn't really give them that many ideas, but they would just like, oh, I know exactly what I want to make, and then they would just make something. It's just like it was. So it was almost like healing to see, to see like a kid just get to like do.
Speaker 2:That was really like, yeah, it was fun we had a yeah, we talked about that before on other podcasts about how important it is to the creative process to just experience play and as adults, we we tend to like look down on play or, in a lot of cases, even have forgotten how to play and how. When you do engage in those, it just like you said it just you. It's amazing where that creative process can take you oh yeah so totally.
Speaker 5:That's one of my favorite things about being a theater artist, because if you think of theater as a whole, what you do in theater is you put on a play right, and so I think, starting from theater and going into art and all these other things, my whole basis has been through play, because that's what acting has been for me and that's what directing has been for me, so it's super important to both of us and it's just fun and it's great, and everyone should give themselves a chance to play and be a kid again oh yeah, it was also like another, like one of my favorite things, like one seeing the kid.
Speaker 4:But you'd also see like parents come in who like haven't made something in so long and then they'll just sit themselves down, be like, I guess I'm gonna do this and then you see them having fun and you see them actually like get into it. And that was also just like getting to see it awaken something within you. Like it's never too late to play around and to like have fun. We all have these materials in our houses.
Speaker 3:Like it's not a tricky thing to just let yourself have fun sometimes no junk, and like junk and garbage seems to be integral to that, because it makes me think of uh, you know, you get this nice new notebook and you're almost scared to write it because, and that me think of uh, you know you get this nice new notebook and you're almost scared to write it because and that like kind of eliminates play right
Speaker 3:there, yeah, oh yeah like because you're like oh, I gotta think of something that's really substantial or means something, but yeah, the fact that you're dealing with garbage, it's like well it doesn't matter, let's just, let's go nuts, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like when you brought up like like painting and stuff like that too, and it's like as a painter, like the most, um, the scariest thing you could do is that.
Speaker 2:First, line on the canvas, but once you get it going it's like oh yeah, I got this but it's just like, like, but yeah, but if it's, if you're already creating something that's in the mindset, it's like it doesn't seem as important yeah, but it can be as important yeah, yeah 100. I like that. It could just unlock that creativity and you can literally go crazy with it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because there's no. Like I remember when I did like the, the bird piece of me in the window, like just the paper for art classes. Like you have to buy the paper and the paper itself can caught, that can be expensive, which was like crazy. For a long time I was very more in that traditional art space of making like things with canvases and nice paper and like good materials, and I was very perfectionist about it. But by using trash it helped me be like well, I've fucked it up, I'm gonna do another one. You know, I'll just, I'll just try it again, because it's just cardboard. I have to use it again later. Um, and that was so freeing. It was so freeing not have to worry about making sure I'm not wasting something like a canvas or something. Yeah, it was, it's yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you both of you for being on the podcast. It's been absolute thrill and pleasure to learn about your art and it's been exciting actually, and so, yeah, I'd like to thank you guys again. For everybody back at home, you can see their installation at the Calgary Central Library on May, the 9th, and yeah, yeah, if you guys want to follow along with other things we have going on, future projects, our residency in here.
Speaker 4:We're going to be posting on our Instagram, which is AreYouHomeYetCollective, and that's AreYouHomeYet, spelled like you would text it. So the letter R, the letter U Home Yet Collective. And feel free to stop by. We're here for the whole month. We're open Thursday to Saturday from 11 to 6. So, yeah, feel free to stop by. We'd love to see you If you have any questions, if you want to touch some of the stuff we've been letting people even, like, try on the heads, yeah, so feel free to stop by and we'd love to meet you.
Speaker 5:And thank you both for having us. We really appreciate the opportunity and it's been so good talking to you it's been very inspiring, glad to have you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, loved hearing your story thank you.
Speaker 2:It's great that there's artists like you out there so thank you, thank you? Um, yeah, so we've been the artsy dudes. Uh, thanks for tuning in. You can, um, follow us on any of the podcast platforms. We are also on YouTube. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you watch it on YouTube, and we'll see you next time. Thank you, bye.