I’m back in Toronto now after an incredible trip to Ireland and Scotland. Uh… I find it really overwhelming to try to summarize these kinds of experiences in a few pithy sentences but I’ll try. The Artist Residency (MAKE), which is pictured above, was truly beyond my expectations. I met 15 incredible people, all working on exciting projects, from Canada, UK and Europe. Highlights included the gay kickboxing class led each day by artist, Ruairi O’Donovan, midnight games around Vickey Curtis’s fire which burned each night in her spacious studio, walking around the lake, seeing a glimpse of the work created and/or curated by our three talented mentors: Stewart Laing, Annie Dorsen and Florian Malzacher, and experiencing everyone’s sharing over the final three days. I was really happy with the progress I made with HAMMER: The History of Cathy Gordon’s Anger which has involved to include Six Strategies for Sublimation: An Anger Action Plan.

After MAKE, I visited the lovely town of Clonmel and was delighted to be invited to return by Junction Festival’s Artist Director, David Teevan, to work with local artist(s) and teenagers to create a new piece for next summer’s festival.

And, of course, my visit to Scotland, although brief was very intense! I was thrilled to connect once more with Stewart Laing and to get a taste of BEHAVIOUR Festival programmed by the daring Jackie Wylie. It’s stirred by Scottish heart to feel the cool winds of Glasgow, a stark yet dynamic cityscape teaming with testosterone.