Today, June 18th, we had such a special FEEDBACK FRIDAY treat with Guelph, Ontario based artist Anita Cazzola. Anita not only played banjo and sang our FEEDBACK FRIDAY theme song with her partner Sam, we got to hear her talk about her Botanical Reclamation project. Anita just launched her project which celebrates the resiliency of wild plants through naturally dyed textiles. The project also offers the community a chance to learn about local plant life, and the natural dye process through self-guided walks, weekly scavenger hunts, project livestreams, workshops, question and answer sessions, and artist talks with the help of various project partners and collaborators.
Watch the video here.
Anita’s links!
ART:
anitacazzola.com
dyeplantsincuriousspaces.com (
@neatcazzola
MENDING:
manidoromending.com
@mani.doro.mending<
MUSIC:
thelifersmusic.com
@thelifers
Want to make a donation to Anita’s Botanical Reclamation Project to expand awareness of plants and soil and community? Head here and leave her a note as to why you thought it important to support her.
Anita is currently working on a project titled Botanical Reclamation. The Botanical Reclamation project celebrates the presence and importance of wild plants through naturally dyed textiles. Anita has been investigating “Sad Spaces” (abandoned quarries, parking lots, roadsides, dumps) in Guelph, Ontario, and gently harvesting the plants that have regenerated and reclaimed these sites. She is creating a body of naturally dyed textile artworks (patchwork ‘flags’) which serve as symbols of botanical resilience and proud emblems of reclamation. This talk will be a deep dive into truly local colour, expanding perspectives of what wild space is and what interacting with nature looks like.
NEXT WEEK…We’ll be talking with Madelaine Corbin. Madelaine is a multidisciplinary artist living in Detroit, Michigan. Her research-based practice moves fluidly between drawing, writing, sculpture, textiles and natural dyeing.
Madelaine will talk about the climate crisis as a crisis of color. She will share pieces of her research and experiments that have inspired her artwork concerning the imminent loss of the color blue from our surrounding ecologies.
RSVP here.
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we speak with dyers, artists, scientists and scholars about our favorite topic, natural dyeing and color. Curated by Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability Director and presented by Botanical Colors’ Founder Kathy Hattori.
We even have our own theme song thanks to musician Jimmie Snider!