All in Guest Writer series
Felipe Jasso is a Mexican Canadian photographer and graduate of the Alberta University of the Arts. His work is influenced by the magical realism found in Latin literature, surrealism, classical art, and symbolism. He investigates the subconscious, memory, and his inner desires. Using symbolism and complex tableaux, Jasso brings to the forefront fragments of his experiences as a kid growing up in Mexico, an immigrant, a queer artist, and his negotiations with the Canadian landscape.
As the freewheeling days of the ‘60s wound down, the sturdy trunk of American Rock and Roll that dominated airwaves since Little Richard and Chuck Berry first planted seeds was being cleaved into a pair of increasingly disparate boughs: that of the Beatles, with its whimsical pop-sensibility and wide-eyed adventurousness, and the more traditional, Blues leaning style of the Rolling Stones.
I have been a photojournalist for over a decade now. My curiosity and passion for storytelling has led me to document some of the most remarkable people and places across the world. Yet for all of my memorable experiences and subjects to photograph over the years, one has eluded me.
I’m Priscille Bukasa, a spoken word artist, teaching artist, and arts facilitator at Arts Commons. I’m also a full-time professional artist, and I’ve been reflecting a lot on the importance of rest lately. So, I wanted to share with you about how I’ve learned to be intentional about making time to rest and recoup over the past year.
Ten years ago, I was asked if I would fundraise in the arts sector and my immediate response was "No!" Having spent more than a decade fundraising for social service agencies tackling addictions, domestic violence, homelessness, and poverty, I couldn’t see the urgency in fundraising for the arts. I was wrong.
As we head into the month of June, I’ve been contemplating some matters that impact me as an artist, as a woman, as an Indigenous person and as someone who lives in Canada.
Inclusion and Identity.
Every other dawn before the birds take to their singing, I sit at my desk thinking of the myriad ways a story can be told or a life lived to appease a foe’s aggro or appeal to the sentiments of readers and spectators waiting to be intrigued; people asking to be enthralled in a web, a weaving that transforms the acts and flaws of a character into the magic created from a marriage of the mind, the ink, and a blank sheet of paper; the most perfect threesome ever since man opened his eyes to see the breaking of dawn and the falling of dusk, the two constants that determine his days, ways, and the canvas on which he paints his masterpieces.
