It has been a long while since I last wrote here, and a lot has changed. The pandemic, of course, spearheaded a great change in direction in many people’s lives. For us, we had a child, then moved to Hamilton, Ontario. We had another child. The world seemed to shatter, over and over, and that feeling continues as I scramble to find hope for my children’s future. I feel the weight of global affairs as they crash down, daily in one depressing story after another. Throughout all of it, my microcosm of family trials and joys, of my community in Hamilton and also of the larger world, art has never left me. In fact, one of the most positive things to occur, for me, is an inheritance of a studio on James street North, and along with it a thriving life drawing group.

This studio, and the community that dedicates itself to meeting weekly, is a sanctuary for me. I am so grateful for it and it reminds me that human connection needs a place to exist and that we should try to cultivate and support those places where we can.