Hello, I am Catherine-Esther, a St. Lucian-born Canadian, Illinois-based poet and visual artist. I am a self-taught collage artist, who discovered this medium of art during the pandemic lockdown in 2020. My collage art is featured in The Indianapolis Review and ctrl + v journal.

Through my private art practice, I seek to map the emotional landscapes of my subject matter, women, immigrant women, Caribbean women and the complexity of emotions/states that simultaneously exist: shame and pleasure, loss and strength, beauty and ugliness, spillage and containment.

I am also the co-founder of imakeuslessstuff.com (@imakeuselessstff ). Our company is committed to using creativity to renew the human spirit. We offer online digital and analog collage art classes to facilitate moments of joy and freedom by helping our customers connect to the parts of them that want to play and/or express feelings of fear, sadness, hurt or anger.

Kelsey is one of the founders of imakeuselessstuff.com. She is a collage artist and poet. Through her collage work, she hopes to inspire women to imagine new ways of being in the world that aren't necessarily represented in the media. Kelsey prefers working in digital collage because of the ease of image-curation and no-big cleanup after.

Mothers and Daughters: Growing things

I.

I am a pair of cupped hands,

A never filled teacup,

An always thirsty spider plant,

I am a hungry thing.

She is a giving thing.

Watering us until we are sated,

Feeding us until our savagery subsides,

Turning herself inside out for us.

She gives until there is nothing left,

We take until we are beautiful flourishing blossoms.

Beautifully savage blossoms.

II.

My childhood was a brightly colored one,

I remember fun,

And play,

And love.

And yes,

Of course,

There were,

Difficulties.

We do not,

Recognize the stars,

Without having seen the darkness first.

But I grew up,

Surrounded by bright strokes of color.

I grew up,

With a mother,

Who gave us more,

Than she ever allowed for herself.

She planted us.

Watered us with love.

She taught us to grow roots,

Taught us to grow up from there.

She never cared,

Whether we were rose, wildflower or ivy.

She simply wanted us,

To flourish.

III.

I’m 25.

My mother is just now learning,

It’s okay to water herself as well.

Learning that it is time,

For her to reach for the sun.

This is a new kind of growth.

(poem created by Kala Godin throughout March, in response to Kelsey Cowie’s Self and the Inner Child)

Kala is a 25-year-old author living with a physical disability (Spinal Muscular Atrophy type 2,) and is confined to a wheelchair. She's had 2 poetry collections published, as well as several short horror stories. Halloween is her favorite holiday. She likes tattoos, chocolate, and witchcraft.

Taiessa (she/her) is a multi-discipline artist living in amiskwaciwâskahikan, so-called Edmonton. Her primary mediums include print, soft sculpture, and long conversations with friends. Taking an auto-ethnographic approach to her work, she explores themes of intimacy and nurturance. In 2018, Taiessa obtained a Fine Art diploma with distinction from Grant MacEwan University before completing her BFA at the University of Alberta. She recently participated in the Mitchell Art Gallery’s Artist Exchange program, and when not in the studio spends her time as Production Supervisor at The Works International Visual Arts Society.
Website: www.taiessa.com Instagram: @tai.the.girl

View Taiessa’s contribution “until there is nothing” here

Ryan Korbutt is the principal tunesmith for Waldo Poblano – a hoppin’ folk rock group based in Edmonton. The music all began one sunny day when Ryan was burrowing around behind the Muttart Conservatory, searching for archaeological evidence of the perfect chord progression. The setting sun refracted briefly through foliage and glass pyramids, focusing the shape of a pepper RIGHT ONTO his most polished trowel… and RIGHT INTO the corner of his favourite eye. Spicy sunbeams travelled through the young troubadour’s body and zinged straight to his left big toe, which quietly began to tap. What happened in between then and now is a story for another day… All I can say is that local fans have been describing the band as a swampy blend of Blues, Folk and Greco-Roman Bossa Nova, with a Rock and Roll sensibility. Waldo Poblano casts sonic vignettes that explore how the tenuous threads we use to hold ourselves together are often the same ones that could bring us closer to others we don’t yet understand.

Erin Stinson is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Through visual artwork, song and the written word her artistic practice is driven by curiosity, seeking the most effective medium, technique and discipline to work out the contemplative themes she is exploring. These themes often contain tension and paradox, juxtaposition and mystery as she seeks to create space where both lament and beauty can freely coexist. Frequently, this work employs natural elements and their cycles, drawing from the bounty of metaphors found in creation.