A VISION IN A DREAM: EMBRACING LIMITATIONS IN CREATIVE PRACTICE

Chair: Morgan Wedderspoon

Panel: James Boychuk-Hunter, Jill Ho-You, Heather Huston, Chrissy Poitras

 

In 1975, Las Vegas architect Martin Stern Jr. had big plans for Xanadu, a massive luxury resort and casino inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem about a marvellous pleasure-dome. Forever unrealized due to limitations of waste management infrastructure, Xanadu would never grace the Strip. Inspired by this abandoned idea, participants are invited to present on the theme of limitations, offering insights into the creative process. Speakers reflect on obstacles to achieving their creative vision — whether technical, resource-related, or otherwise — which altered the course of their work. How do limitations play an essential role in creative practice? How can one stay motivated in the face of obstacles, or even embrace them?

 

ABOUT MORGAN WEDDERSPOON

Morgan Wedderspoon’s print media works and found-object sculptures assemble textual fragments and material traces of contemporary life to reflect on the feeling of living in a time of anthropogenic global systems upheaval. Recent and forthcoming exhibition sites include SNAP Gallery (Edmonton), Open Studio (Toronto), Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries (Dayton), Robert L. Ringel Gallery & Fountain Gallery (West Lafayette), and China Print Museum (Shenzhen). Wedderspoon is a graduate of Queen’s University (2009) and holds a Master of Fine Art in Printmaking from the University of Alberta (2016). She teaches printmaking at the University of Alberta and the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists (SNAP), where she is also Communications Coordinator, and is a Programming Committee member of Nuit Blanche Edmonton.

 

ABOUT THE PANEL

James Boychuk-Hunter is a Sessional Instructor of Print Media at Alberta College of Art + Design. Jill Ho-You is an Assistant Professor of Print Media at Alberta College of Art + Design. Heather Huston is the Chair of the School of Visual Art at Alberta College of Art + Design. Chrissy Poitras is the Co-Owner + Founder of Spark Box Studio.