report to the community — a throwback project (2012) and one where i thought a little differently early in my career

dimensions when folded 7x10 in; poster dimensions 21x30 in

the report to the community was a project my department (central marketing and communications) did at usask every year that summarized some of the bigger news stories across campus from the past year used as a marketing piece to give out at campus and community events.

we usually did it like a typical brochure/booklet but this year when i worked on it i thought, “maybe we could make it into a poster?” books are nice if you have a place to put them but with stuff like this i think they often get tossed out once you read them.

the poster format was a way to maybe avoid having people toss it out after they read it; this way the hope was to have people want to hang it up in their office after reading it so they see it frequently without it being in the way and adding to the office/desk clutter. in a way, my colleagues and i thought this would maybe boost internal campus staff morale as well as keep us top of mind for external stakeholders.

we still wanted it to be able to fold and look like a booklet to make it easy and more traditional to handle so we used some of the slogan words one by one as a way to “introduce” the stories.

our six

In 2019 I was asked to participate in Spreadshow called “Our Six,” a local design show in Saskatoon. “We are all Treaty People” is a refrain for those inside Canadian Treaty boundaries.

Participants were asked to design a logo to explore and visually portray the aspects of living within Treaty 6 territory and the process work was also to be presented next to the final artwork as a visual juxtaposition.

This project was done on a volunteer/community basis and was delayed and then cancelled due to COVID-19. Even though this project never saw the light of day, I still enjoyed the process. The process was not as simple as it may seem and I brainstormed ideas casually and in my spare time while observing and getting to know Indigenous people and culture over a period of a few months.

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Initial sketches (slideshow):

skills demonstrated:

concept development and ideation, logo design, digital iIllustration, graphic design, art direction, visual storytelling

A sneak preview of the final design:

Digital concepts and sketches:

Right away, I knew I wanted to keep it simple and play with typography. I ended up with about three main concepts emerge from the early sketches.

The first idea was the misshapen six, the scrambled letters, or the letters with the line through them. This told the story of lostness. I had observed a bit of Indigenous culture around this time through friends and realized there was a lot of lost culture that most of us had no clue about.

The second idea I had was based on the quote by Dr. Gregory Cajete. In trying to illustrate the quote, some circles and half circles emerged.

The third idea was based on the definition of reconciliation (the restoration of friendly relations). Using some of the shapes from the second idea, I started to mess with shapes and letterforms and discovered that the U and I seemed to work as a bridge to join (or reconcile) the other letters together, which brought me to my final concept/design.

“now that we’re old, stories will be told”

18x24in, collage

when my friend asked me near the end of last year if anyone wanted a giant scrapbook she made from our hanson tour week in 2007, I immediately called dibs because, with some other things I had, it just sounded like an art project waiting to happen. i guess i took one scrapbook and curated it down a lot by finding the best parts—the parts that worked to tell some sort of more relatable wider fan story—and put it into something that can always be on display.

it kinda goes hand in hand with this project—but this one is more centred around the fan experience: the friendships, the jokes, the travel, the massive storage bank of memories and stories we collect, and so much more beyond the music when we go to shows, or multiple shows with friends we only know because of the music.

these shows, moments, and adventures? they change our lives.

fire inside (version one, two, and three)

version one

in the summer of 2024, i made this painting one day just for me. i didn’t spend a lot of time on it and i didn’t have a plan. i just started painting, adding one part at a time and a felt like i was led by the fire inside, which turned out to represent a feminist perspective. it felt a bit personal, so i held onto it.

version two

in december 2024, after discovering a song with a lyric that said “never seen a fire, like the one inside her, even when she’s tired, she could melt sierra snow, and make the golden rod grow” i felt like the song just went with the painting; both gave me the same feeling.

so i bought handwritten lyrics of the song from the artist and by the end of january the following year, i put the lyrics in a frame juxtaposed next to the canvas. moving without a plan like the first version with some sort of reckless abandon (like ripping the canvas off the original wood frame), i updated the original painting a bit and fixed some parts i didn’t love and wanted the new version to feel a bit more…powerful.

at that time i was exhausted, burnt out, had just been laid off for the third time since 2020… but still i felt ready for whatever. ready to (melt the canadian snow and) grow.

song is broken bow by john calvin abney

version three (and what i think is the final version)

in april 2025, i had just bought this small (about 11x14 in) wood frame from a thrift store and wasn’t sure what to do with it, but it felt like a good piece for a collage. the original canvas of it was some kind of paper glued flatly onto the frame (like something you’d find mass produced and at Home Sense or Target or something).

i noticed then that version two had less meaning than it did when i first made it—i still love the song but the art was ready for something new. so i took version two apart, found a new frame for the handwritten lyrics on their own, and started cutting up the canvas art just enough so that it fit onto this wood frame. i wasn’t concerned if it looked cut up and pieced together. that was the intention. i wanted it to look like some sort of process and rough mess because that’s what the fire inside usually looks like. i glued it down and then started adding things to the canvas in a similar way as i did in version one and with a reckless abandon like i did in version two—completely led by the fire inside.

i added cut outs of words from a random comic ‘zine i recently found in someone’s free mini library in their yard that ‘fit the story i wanted to tell,’ i added cut outs of flowers from construction paper that were the same shape as some ceramic necklaces i just made, added some more touches in paint, paint pen, oil pastels, pencil crayons, etc… and really just kept adding random things until i felt like version three could hold its own and tell a new story.

“i’ll let you be in my dreams if i can be in yours”

i had this small wooden box to do something with this winter and around the same time i saw a picture of the steps of the bob dylan museum in tulsa that had these lyrics on them. i liked it so i went and listened to the song (“talkin’ world war III blues”) it came from again and read the lyrics.

i realized it was similar to a thought i had lately and a little story i wrote (below) about how we connect—how a lot of times everyone just kinda wanders around in their own world, thinking about themselves and then often shows up in their dreams (or daydreams) alone and this is terrible. we’re all just out here on our own islands? sounds terrible, right? it really feels like we are becoming more and more disconnected these days despite having more tools to connect and connecting to chat gpt is easier than connecting to a real person? again, this sounds terrible and is probably why i refuse to use chat gpt in that way.

in short, i made this box out of an ink transfer of bob dylan and acrylic paint as a little reminder that i’m not here alone and that music, art, and life is about connecting/being in each other’s dreams.

first three months of an “awful quiet” winter on film / 2025

some favourites from one roll taken with a Pentax k1000

i love when i take three months to finish a film and when i get the photos developed i see photos i forgot i took :]

are you creating or are you just following instructions?

as i’m pet sitting right now at a friend’s house, i saw this spiral bowl (photos) i made once in a hand building pottery class a few years ago. it was my first hand building project i ever built, was a bit of a ~journey (anxiety, stress…some tears, you know, the usual), and the bowl is totally imperfect in all its glory.

i gifted it to a friend who appreciates it more than i do. personally, when i see it it brings back memories i don’t like. the project was someone else’s idea… i just followed their steps and used my hands to build their idea. since i’ve been exploring hand built ceramics more this year, naturally i got to reminiscing a bit and then wrote this essay in relation to the experience but also something i think is key when it comes to ‘creating’ anything.

following instructions may be a good way to learn but if you stick to the rules too closely you’re actually using a totally different part of your brain that isn’t creativity, and it won’t benefit you later on.

—mal

the hands

“activist” (2024)

i found this ceramic hand in a thrift store for a few dollars. it was definitely in rough shape and not a very nice colour—but it was making a fist and it had a hole going through it for something like a pencil, paintbrush…or maybe a flag?

so i bought it and gave it a fresh paint job to look like the inclusive pride flag with the black base, the multi coloured brown stripes, and rainbow dots.

“symbol of life” (2025)

for my birthday this year, a few friends and i went to wet paint pottery for a chill, creative night and i picked out this hand vase to paint.

maybe i have a thing for painting hands…?

anyway, i decided to paint this one to look like my own hand, ocean wave tattoo and all. i don’t typically wear red nail polish but i do like the colour red so i thought it was a suitable solution.

since i did this for my birthday, i decided the hand is a symbol of life—and another year of being alive for it.

today and tomorrow, music saves

18x24in

(mixed media/collage)

just years of concert tickets, autographed cd jackets, a few festival cruise ship key cards, and memories that will never fade packaged up neatly into some form of art

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i had an extra 18x24 poster i used as the base and then arranged everything loosely and taped it together to form the collage. tape seemed less permanent than glue so i could adjust things if needed and since i knew it was going in a frame i wasn’t worried about it being overly secure.

then i made some letters… “today and tomorrow music saves” is a quote i had on a random tshirt years ago that i always liked. i don’t have that shirt anymore—so this was a good way to let it live on.

done ;)

southern california film / nov 2024

all photos taken with a Pentax k1000

i landed in san diego around noon. after grabbing lunch and doing a bit of work at a cafe near my airbnb, i changed into a swimsuit and found myself exploring ocean beach and the nearby streets solo for the afternoon til sunset.

there’s an unexplainable feeling i get on days like this—like standing underneath or on top of the pier and just watching the waves relentlessly come as surfers try to catch them. if they miss it, they might get the next, or the next. this is kinda like life, isn’t it?

remote work life feat. a view from my airbnb desk in san diego

a solo day at the san diego zoo

after checking out of my san diego airbnb, i had a couple hours to spare before my train to los angeles.

naturally, i wanted to go to the beach but since i had my (carry on) luggage with me, the scenic lookout point at sunset cliffs will suffice.

life in transit

(taken somewhere between san diego and los angeles via train)

late summer film / 2024

so i bought this camera (Pentax k1000) off facebook marketplace… these are a few of that first film where i was just messing around a bit