A WALK IN THE PARK WITH SHARL SMITH

I met artist Sharl Smith for a walk on Sandrock Trail near her home in Kitchener. We strolled through her neighbourhood before connecting up with the trail through paths which felt like a secret entrance to the green space hiding in plain sight. 

“It was one of the first places where I fell in love with the region,” Smith said. “This is just accessible to everyone.” 

Smith took us to her favourite place on the trail, where large stones lie across Detweiler Creek, forming a natural bridge. The spring cardinals flew above us as we stepped onto the rocks to get a closer look. 

“[U]sually [the brush] is so thick you can’t even see the river,” Smith said.  

“I like to come here and sit and meditate. And when my son was born, I brought him here.” 

The flowing water brought back childhood memories for Smith, of catching tadpoles and crayfish in the river where she grew up in Jamaica. 

She moved from Jamaica to the U.S. in the late nineties to attend the New York Institute of Technology where she obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree. She then moved to Berkeley, CA, for work. 

“I knew I didn’t want to work in corporate architecture,” Smith said. “I just thought my soul would die. So, I got a job in a firm that did residential architecture.” 

The firm taught Smith about working meticulously, something that would be essential for her as an artist. She returned to the New York area after several years in California to be with her ailing father. He passed shortly after her return and that loss, combined with the financial crisis of 2008 and Smith’s own struggles with her health, changed her life and working situation. 

It was at that time that Smith discovered beadwork and jewelry making, which launched her into the world of art. In Ithaca, New York, she learned about seed beads, small glass beads that can be stitched, so named from their origins when fine beadwork was done with actual seeds. 

“I would go to grief counseling, stop at [the craft store] Michaels, go home and make something,” Smith said. “I just needed to make things. It was really therapeutic.” 

This period became a time of spiritual awakening for Smith, who began to explore her own upbringing. She read about different philosophies and histories and attended a Buddhist retreat that affected her deeply. 

Smith soon discovered sculptural beadwork, and working in three dimensions changed and shaped her artistic practice. She started an Etsy shop and took her beaded creations to stores in her area. 

“One place in Soho took my little flowers and sold them,” Smith said. “And I was so happy.” 

Not long after, Smith and her partner moved to Kitchener, where he was from, to be closer to family and stability. From that point on, Smith worked as an artist. 

“I’ve always been an artist…but I grew up with the idea that you can’t be an artist,” Smith said. “That’s not something serious people do.” 

But it is something that Smith did. In 2015, she started Sun Drops Studio in Waterloo where she creates works of art through bead stitching. She scaled up her work and created sculptures with mirror gazing balls that functioned as hollow steel beads, using steel cables as thread. These large works allow Smith to occupy more space with her art and underlying themes. 

“It’s a way of…centering women’s history and anything that’s undervalued,” Smith said. “[I]t ends up being about more than just women’s rights. It becomes about anything that’s other.” 

Smith has had exhibitions of her work at the Art Gallery of Ontario where she was an artist-in-residence, the Canadian Clay and Glass Museum and Homer Watson House and Gallery, to name a few. For Smith, arts and culture are the soul and spirit of a city. Fueling that artistic energy requires a community of creators, Smith sought that out upon moving to the region. She joined the board of the Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFKA), serving as Chair for four years. She is also passionate about breaking down barriers to art. 

“We have to try to include everyone,” Smith said. “Include people who don’t think like you, don’t look like you, who are not from your same economic circle…to me, that’s community building.”  

She acknowledges the hard work involved in developing community and organizing, but Smith sees the value in arts organizations working together to facilitate involvement from all corners. Whether through mentoring emerging artists, getting the word out about events, or connecting with underrepresented populations, Smith is committed to furthering the artistic landscape in the region for everyone. 

#AmyNeufeld #artisitc #beadwork #canadianClayAndGlassMuseum #Column #developingCommunity #flowers #homerWatsonHouseAndGallery #landscape #Neighbourhood #sandrockTrail #SharlSmith #sunDropsStudio #walkInThePark

A WALK IN THE PARK WITH WILLA COWARD

The ground at Huron Natural Area was slippery with a coating of late-March snow when I met musician and concert photographer Willa Coward for a walk. Despite wearing footwear better suited for dry conditions, we ventured onto the trails to experience the beauty of the area and talk about the local arts scene.

Coward has been playing drums for most of her life, and is a member of the bands Body Nest, One More Lane and A Horse Named Friday. She has training and experience on the saxophone as well, but despite engaging in vocal exercises, Coward does not consider herself a singer.

“I know how to scream pretty well,” she said. “I can go really loud.”

Her talent for large vocal production led Coward to join a screamo band, a punk style which she describes as cathartic, emotional and hardcore. Not content to stick with one style, Coward also plays chamber folk, power violence, psych rock and shoegaze post rock. 

“[I]t really is…all types of music that I’m drawn to,” Coward said. “There’s nothing that really deters me.” 

With such a diverse range of styles in her repertoire, Coward lets the music dictate what she brings to her performance, focusing on the needs of the piece to guide her contribution. 

“I basically come at it with whatever feels right, whatever is adding to the song,” she said.

Originally from Caledon, Coward came to Waterloo to pursue music studies at Laurier and was in her second year when the pandemic hit. Burn-out and the challenges of lockdown meant that she chose to leave the program halfway through. 

“It had been the longest time since I played for the sake of playing, or just for the love of it,” Coward said. “[S]chool and I just didn’t really work well together.”

Coward turned her attention to practice and performance but also invested in building the local music community. As we walked along the boardwalk surrounding the pond before heading up another slippery trail, Coward talked about the importance of bringing people together to experience shows, and the emotions that can accompany music.

“I just wanted there to be more music, more things for people to go to, because…they’re pretty necessary,” Coward said. “COVID hit, and everything just became so scattered and dispersed. There wasn’t really that core…to tie people together.”

The community in the region felt welcoming to Coward, which is why she wanted to invest in building local shows. She described people showing up for the love of the scene, and relationships growing from those connections. 

“I feel like…we have a very good community based here, especially in terms of music,” she said.

Community and music connect through photography, another artistic outlet that Coward pursues. She brought her camera when she went to music venues, and began shooting the shows that she was attending, learning through trial and error.

“I didn’t know what I was doing at all. I was winging it!” Coward said. “It was just something I hold really close to heart. It’s nice to have that documentation…to say that it happened, and it was important to a lot of people.”

Coward shoots music shows on a film camera, preferring that medium to digital. Film facilitates other connections; people will approach her at shows to talk about her technique and process. Coward told me about finding a local store to develop film.

“[It’s] run by the sweetest older couple who I would trust with my life,” she said.

We left the trail area and returned to the covered shelter by the natural playground with a view of the art murals to finish our conversation. For Coward, coming to Huron Natural Area meant a return to a site of fond memories. Two years ago, she spent part of her birthday on a hike here at a time of year when the landscape was green and lush.

“I remember being so taken aback by it…I could have walked for hours,” she said.

For Coward, green spaces are where she can focus on herself and be solitary while appreciating nature. Being outside allows her to connect to the sensory experience and helps her when dealing with difficult situations.

“It’s very calming,” she said. “It puts you back into your body.”

We finish our interview by discussing movies. Coward enjoys films that show a quiet reflection of daily life, as well as off-beat cult comedy classics, a further example of the variety of art that she surrounds herself with.  

With a handful of new movie recommendations each, we ended our discussion and parted ways, and Willa Coward returned to her life and work in the community of local artists 

#AWalkInThePark #AmyNeufeld #artisticOutlet #boardwalk #Caledon #Column #COVID #CraigBecker #HuronNaturalArea #localMusic #Love #musicStudies #performance #photography #relationships #scene #waterloo #willaCoward

A WALK IN THE PARK WITH AASHAY DALVI

“I don’t usually go to parks,” Aashay Dalvi said. “I go to coffee shops, I go to bookshops.”

It is why we started our outing at Whoopsie Daisy on the corner of King St. and Victoria St. in Kitchener. With lattes in hand, we looked out the windows from the second floor of the coffee shop and spotted the Cherry Park Trail. Part urban, part green space, fluid and ever-changing— it was the perfect destination for our walk.

Dalvi immigrated from Mumbai to Toronto in 2017, then moved to Kitchener in the early days of the pandemic, quickly establishing themself as an artist and community builder.

With a background and practice in film creation and production, Dalvi also performs stand-up comedy and is the founder of Rad Riot Books.

“I had experienced racism, but I hadn’t experienced racism until I was in KW,” Dalvi said.

“I realized that a lot of the oppression stems from fear and ignorance. So, I could either get all up in arms…or I could use this opportunity to enlighten and educate,” they said.

The second path is the one Dalvi chose.

“We started encouraging folks to read anti-racist literature, translated literature, books about immigrants who have chosen to move to different continents, books about characters learning about their queer identity,” Dalvi said.

The Rad Riot Books platform on Instagram is a place of curation and community with book club meetings, recommendations and a chance for Dalvi to spotlight diverse stories and authors, expanding the conversation around literature, identity and what it means to be Canadian.

We reached Cherry Park and passed children playing on the swings and slides as a ladybug joined us for some of the walk. We kept going beyond the park, seeing where the trails and residential streets took us as our conversation turned to the meaning of home.

“I did not grow up having easy access to wide green spaces,” Dalvi said.

“To me it’s something that I only started doing after moving to this country… I feel solace in the noise of the hustle and bustle of city life.”

Home is not a concept that Dalvi defines easily or traditionally.

“I see home as a place where you are constantly learning and you are constantly learning to love yourself,” Dalvi said.

“Wherever I get to be with people or in spaces where it is normalized for you to be your authentic self…that is home,” they said. “Home is fluid. Home is non-binary.”

Dalvi has contributed to building the home they want through their community engagement. They got involved with the demonstrations to remove the Prime Minister statues in Baden just after moving to the area.

They also founded Ground Up WR, a platform for local activists to influence progressive political change.

We reached Raddatz Park, then transitioned onto the Iron Horse Trail and walked towards Victoria Ave. before looping back towards Cherry Park Trail.

We spotted a little free library and paused to look at the contents. Our conversation came back to literature and the arts, something Dalvi is passionate about.

They moved to Toronto to attend Humber College for television writing and producing and were inspired to come to Canada after connecting with Schitt’s Creek.

“I even wrote that in my statement of purpose,” Dalvi said.

They spoke about Canadian content with admiration and respect, citing Being Erica, Orphan Black and Ginger Snaps as favorites.

In addition to consuming content, Dalvi is also a creator. They started performing stand-up in 2019 in Toronto.

Dalvi found people receptive to their style of comedy at open mics in bars like Tammy’s in Toronto.

“It felt so good and validating because it was the first time that people were laughing at what I had to say and not at who I was,” Dalvi said.

“The best part about comedy is you can mold it to who you’re sharing it with,” they said.

We were back on the Cherry Park Trail when I asked Dalvi about their creative hopes for the future.

“I would love to make long-form content,” Dalvi said. “I want to make a version of Schitt’s Creek with people that look like me…so kids who feel othered don’t feel like they have to end their lives.”

We ended our walk where we began, back at Whoopsie Daisy for a cold drink, before it was time for Dalvi to return to their work of community strengthening, connection and creation.

#AashayDalvi #AmyNeufeld #CherryPark #Column #CraigBecker #LGBTQ2_ #queer #racism #RadRiotBooks