Artist Residency Aug 7-Sep 1

Artist Jennifer Danvers spent an entire month here at Slough Studios in order to dive deeply into challenging and difficult work. Jennifer was accompanied for a large portion of the residency, by her daughter Shelby who also used the time and space to slow down, and retreat in her own way. Jennifer’s intention for the residency was to produce a body of work that had been brewing inside since graduating with her BA from Alberta University of the Arts. This was personal work which related to her past and her heritage. Slough Studios provided time, space and safety allowing Jennifer to trust the process of creating from a place which was deeper than a conscious formulation. Perhaps it is the valley, the water or the mountains which are vital to this capacity. Maybe all the creatures who co-exist with us here at Slough Studios, are also part of this generous and generative space, which allows for a flow of creativity. Jennifer was successful in her goals to create a body of work which would have been difficult if not impossible to make in her home based studio. We are grateful for the trust Jennifer gave to Slough Studios to settle in to this beautiful space and create her art.

Artist Residency Aug 6-13

During the second week in August, Slough Studios hosted Margarete Beekman, from central Alberta and Jennifer Danvers, from Canmore Alberta, along with Jennifer’s daughter. Margarete is a landscape painter who arrived at Slough Studios with the intention of leaving her busy family life behind and to dedicate her focus to creating a new body of work. She was interested in stepping out of her comfort zone and trying new techniques to generate a fresh impression of the beauty she surrounds herself in. Margarete primarily painted with oil sticks on canvas boards using photography as her visual reference. Magarete also created a series of ink and water color on paper, of the Columbia River from Canal Flats to Golden, BC. These speedy sketches were largely completed while accompanying me ( Kathryn Cooke) on a field trip to collect water samples from the river. Speed created a necessity to capture the essentials of a complex landscape, resulting in a startling body of work to build from.

First Retreat- July 20-Aug 5, 2023

Slough Studios opened its summer program by hosting a retreat for two women coming to celebrate the hopes, dreams and lunacy of the full Sturgeon moon Aug. 1.

Sturgeon moon rising above Jubilee Mountain, Columbia Valley, Aug. 1, 2023

Time away from the challenges of day to day life, can provide opportunities for reflection and growth. Shelly and Joanne found their time at Slough Studios rewarding as they embraced the physical, creative and spiritual challenges that arose. Their time together deepened their friendship through shared experiences. Time at Slough Studios offered an opportunity to pause and reflect. The guided writing and movement experiences supported these women to return home with new energy and inspiration for their next endeavors.

It was a great pleasure facilitating the week for these amazing ladies.

posted by Kathryn Cooke

A Garden Update

It has been a busy summer with creators and artists arriving at Slough Studios to reflect and move forward into new ways of thinking and making. Small construction projects took place and the outdoor kitchens took shape for use. All the while, the Slough Studios reclaimed garden flourished. September is now the time to harvest the bounty of food that grew from the earth. It is truly a miracle.

Next season Slough Studios Garden hopes to partner with a local food organization to help support the local food bank and sustainable food production. When community can work together, so much can happen to support health and well being for all.

Reclaiming a Garden

Spring exploded here at Slough Studios with unseasonably warm temperatures, a quick snowmelt run- off, and plants bursting at the seams as they emerged from earth, water, stems and branches. The work reclaiming the garden, which had begun last fall, continued on into the early spring. The struggle to bring a garden back from two years of neglect, was enormous and the hours spent leant themselves to a wandering mind trying to understand the meaning of what this garden was trying to tell me.

The garden has taught me a lot this year and it truly is a metaphor for the Slough Studios itself. The seeds for Slough Studios have been planted after a lot of preparation. The preparation included the design and construction of the studio which occurred with the help of my son and friends. Further enhancement of the cabin and surrounding accommodations spaces is ongoing which has required considerable time, effort and resources. Support from my family and friends have kept the dream alive, adding richness to the foundational soil upon which Slough Studios will grow. Growth takes time and patience as well as ongoing maintenance to ensure the project doesn’t fail through a lack of care. Some plans work out and others don’t. Importantly, it’s a necessity to keep tending the garden while those seeds of life are germinating.

This year I will be hosting a small group of women who wish to retreat to Slough Studios to both celebrate important life events but who are also curious about the process of personal growth. There will also be a fine young artist arriving with her family to settle and work here at Slough Studios for an entire month. These will be the first seedlings to arise from this garden and with ongoing care and attention, there will be many more to come.

One Step at a Time

This is a story of creating.

As artists, we understand this word and we live it every time we bring something into the world by the efforts of our minds and bodies. In my experience creating can sometimes come lightning fast. At other times it seems stalled and so many ideas are swirling in my head, with nothing to adhere them together into a unified idea or process. It can be daunting at times when big ideas emerge, and I am not sure how to proceed.

Slough Studios is one such idea that began over nine years ago, around the time I was graduating with my BFA. This was long before I was to enter the then, Nomad, now Confluence MFA program. The idea of developing an artist residency seemed a logical and not too difficult task. (Little did I know). It simmered under the surface of my consciousness, and over the next few years would occasionally pop up to get air.

There was always something however coming to prominence pushing the idea back under. And this is where, for years, the idea stayed in a holding pattern.

Life though is at times disarmingly strange. Of its own accord, the idea resurfaced and this time it refused to disappear. I had just started my MFA. It was spring 2020 and we were all settling into the life of Covid. I decided to push forward with drawings for the studio and to choose a building site even though or perhaps because, we were now hunkered down in the midst of Covid restrictions.

Slough Studios Drawings.

I had negotiated an agreement to purchase the property that the studio would be built on which was adjacent to land I had owned for 18 years. One of the terms for purchase was to clear the scrub brush from the old skid trails on the mountainside. I walked the property with my dogs, over the winter and early spring, flagging the trails which would be cleaned up. By the end of my first year on the MFA, I was ready to proceed with construction. It was now spring 2021.

Slough Studios Site building selection with 51 North.

Building started and life became exceedingly busy managing work that provided an income to support myself, moving into the second year of the MFA, and making a myriad of decisions with respect to the construction. The simple idea had ballooned into something which at times seemed unmanageable.

I took this in stride through a process of compartmentalizing the jobs and taking work, art making for thesis and studio construction one step at a time. The studio was completed Spring 2022, with ongoing work being done to the accommodation sites. 

I have found that life experiences intertwine and influence the next steps. What I learned during the Nomad (Confluence) MFA, informed not only the body of work that I generated for my thesis and the future, but it has also informed the nature of what I am trying to accomplish here at Slough Studios. The interdisciplinary MFA allowed me to imagine inviting individuals of all backgrounds, to come and spend quality time at Slough Studios. Problems can be solved, and new ideas can develop when there is diversity of thought. It is my hope that this land-based arts residency and retreat becomes a recognized place of arts-based research and creation. Great things can happen when we take it one step at a time, and never give up on an idea.

published by Kathryn Cooke

What’s in a name?

I’ve been wanting to write about the name of Slough Studios for a while. Naming is an important decision as it stays with the place or being for a long time. It is part of what gives anything life as it immediately starts a story that likely began long before the naming. The place of Slough Studios is unique to its surroundings of mountain, forest, and wetlands. As the creative space overlooks the Columbia River Wetlands, this becomes extra special. A slough is a part of any wetlands. Many people I have met aren’t sure how to pronounce this word which says something about how language evolves based on the frequency and need to communicate the idea that pertains to any given word. A slough is an integral part of a wetland environment and I wonder, as our lives retreat from exterior landscapes, do we lose the vocabulary that had been assigned to these places?When deciding on the name for this residency and retreat, the word slough came up. At first the word brought to mind muck and mire, stagnation and backwaters. It seemed the antithesis of generative, creative flow. Yet as Logan, Nathan and myself, simmered with the word, it became clear that slough was perfect. The naming of our residency retreat as Slough Studios, honours the very landscape where it is located.

Thus a slough ( pronounced slu or sloo), is a backwater, a pausing water, something that contributes to a larger flowing body of water. This idea of pausing and slowing down is integral to Slough Studios. By reversing the speed at which we are living, we are able to focus on our exterior and interior landscapes. This condition of pausing is a beautiful place to synthesize and then create. A slough contains enormous biologic diversity and serves many functions in a wetland ecosystem. It creates habitat for birds, insects, plants and animals of all sizes and shapes. We are coming to understand that a monoculture of anything is not healthy whether that be of thought, microbiome, or macro-biome. Diversity means multiplicity of possibility which is the foundation of nimbly solving problems as they arise. Where all have a place, instead of only some, stronger communities exist.

Finally, the word slough is a cameleon as it can be pronounced an entirely different way ( sluff), and mean something quite different. In this case it is a verb and refers to the shedding of the unwanted or unused. This action is something which unconsciously occurs all the time. But what if this act of shedding the unwanted or no longer useful became a conscious choice. This is critical as we evolve into better humans. Can we let go of a fear of “not having enough” or “not being good enough”? Can we let go of shame and guilt? Can we let go of anger? To make room for the beauty in life, we surely must let go of the ugliness. Here at Slough Studios, I am hopeful that the land and my more-than-human neighbours, can show us a better way. By pausing and then noticing what happens, I think this is possible.

Looking forward to seeing you here at Slough Studios.

-posted by Kathryn Cooke

It all begins with an idea

It all begins with an idea. Eighteen years ago, as I was graduating from art school, I had the idea of building an artist residency here in the hamlet of Parson, British Columbia, Canada. Life took many turns along this passage to where I find myself today. But the idea of this dream always remained, simmering in my mind. When the timing was right, that idea became more prevalent in my day to day thinking and as a result, opportunities that strengthened that dream began to present themselves. As those opportunities were acted upon, I took further steps towards making this a reality. The process has been challenging but here I am, only two months from “opening the doors” to creative individuals to make things happen.

Jennifer and Shelby are here at Slough Studios because artist Jennifer Danvers had an idea of carving out time to create but also provide an enriched experience for her daughter. They arrived for a short visit in order to investigate the space that they will be living in this summer for a month. Jennifer and I had deep and generative discussions which are already stimulating creative directions for Jennifer. My idea of offering space to artists with partners and loved ones to share in the artist’s experience seemed a natural offering. For many artists it difficult to leave their families and so why not work and play in the same space? It’s an idea that this summer, we will investigate and I am confident that a new passage of arts creation will be forged.

posted by Kathryn Cooke

Lily

This is Lily. So why Lily as the first blog post of Slough Studios Passages? Let’s start with the title; Passages. A passage suggests a place to somewhere. It indicates a journey, which tells us that there must be a here and there; a before and after. Slough Studios is such a portal where artists come to investigate and discover. They have a before and then an after. They will have journeyed to new understandings through their creative process. Thus a puppy is a living being at the beginning of its life passage, which is full of hope and adventure for good things to come. In a way, Lily is a metaphor for all who visit Slough Studios. Lily’s life is generative as is the work of visiting arts based researchers.

And who doesn’t love a puppy anyway??

posted by Kathryn Cooke