“When I began my residency at Similkameen Artist Residency, I thought that I wanted to research the history and practices of the Syilx Nation, as well as that of settler history. How do these cultures overlap and create a contradictory yet functional relationship?

I did begin that research, however the results as well as the process were much different than I had thought.

On arriving the mountains and the landscape held me transfixed. The large rolling round forms encased the roads, towns, orchards and people. 

I began my work by drawing the mountains as continuous line drawings. I drew outside looking at the mountains and also from pictures that I would take. 

I drew in a free and impulsive or responsive manner. I felt my renderings of the mountains was how I came to know them. In drawing the contours of the mountains, my work started to include other things- shadows, trees, branches and animals. The things came into the drawings as elements, I did not create a to scale drawing of each thing. They were placed more as abstract forms. Each element of the drawing was associated to the other.

 I explored how the narrative quality of the works wanders into an in-between zone, allowing for multiply readings of a work or project. Messages and possible meanings shift from the nature of the materials, my usage of them, and how this mix reflects social codes and possibilities.

I did have meaningful studio visits with the other participants at the residency, as well as visit art venues such as the historical museum of Keremeos, the Kelowna reginal museum, Alternator the artists run center, Penticton art gallery and the Cardiff and Miller art warehouse. The contents from any of these venues would not be readily available in Montreal. They each had works that told different stories about the venue as well as cultural practices.

Examples of Indigenous culture were available everywhere yet needed to be found. All museums and galleries had great exhibitions of Smelqmix people as well as other Nations. The Similkameen artists residency gave lots of information of the values of the Smelqmix people such as how to respect the land. All of these markers could be seen as part of cultural mix that is the result of settler culture. There is shifting that is constantly happening. The process of change it made clear by the mountain formations of the Similkameen valley. I am honored to have had a chance to experience this.”

Natalie Olanick, Testimonial