“hand to eye to land to sky to” is a curated project that will take place in various locations around Calgary. It is essentially a botanical drawing club where 4 curated artists will work together in advance of Sled Island to develop and schedule drawing sessions that will take place throughout the duration of the festival. The sessions will be open to the public and will likely include food, blankets, and portable radios/music. Participants are encouraged to draw, using various media supplied, and contribute towards an image bank with the potential for future publication or exhibition. The subsequent publication may include poetry and creative writing by local and international writers among other things. Special thanks to Shanye Ehman for the use of his poem, “hand to eye…”

Rachel Eirich is a Calgary based visual artist whose work explores the transcendental elements of material ecologies, focused specifically on the re-contextualization of the relationships formed between objects and imagery. Her conceptually driven sculptures, installations, paper and media works draw from a psychological uncertainty created by the cognitive dissonance within these relations. Suggesting the uncanny, the works reveal an anxious reality present through material explorations: the traces, losses and eliminative surfaces of contemporary objects. Eirich is studying for her BFA at the Alberta College of Art and Design, where she has had the opportunity to collaborate with several artists, as well as participate in local exhibitions.

Sondra Meszaros graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design and received her MFA in Drawing from the University of Windsor. Meszaros is known for her large-scale drawings that indulge a connection to the abysmal, the uncanny, the violent, and the mysterious lurking behind idylls. Her work and research is rooted in the development of a personal narrative that appropriates from folklore, animist myths, and pagan storytelling, with patterned power dynamics, the works border between figuration and abstraction. Most recently, she has been interested in ideas of nature and nurture to examine collective pre-occupations with instinctual drive and masochistic tendencies. Her work has been placed in many prestigious North American and international private collections. Meszaros’ work has been exhibited at the Armory Show, Art Basel, The Toronto International Art Fair, and The VIP - Viewing In Private International Contemporary Art Fair. Meszaros is represented by Corkin Gallery in Toronto. She currently lives in Calgary, Alberta where she teaches within the School of Visual Arts at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Lauren Mikols lives and works in the supernatural rocky mountains. Her drawings and sculptural works are informed by the vast magical forests and the ghostly presence that roams within them. She is inspired by the animal world and secret layers of plants; nourishing keepers of spiritual energy; the forest's magic. Lauren holds a BFA in Drawing from the Alberta College of art and Design

Heather Kai Smith is an artist from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She received her B.F.A. in Drawing with Distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2009. Her solo and collaborative work has been exhibited at The Illingworth Kerr Gallery (Calgary), The White House (TO), Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), Nuit Blanche Calgary, Institut für alles mögliche (Berlin, Germany), and the Art Gallery of Calgary. Using multiple mediums (ranging from animation, printmaking, projection and installation), the foundation of her work is rooted in the practice of drawing. Her work has been commissioned for Telus Spark!: The New Calgary Science Centre, Pith Gallery, and Sled Island Music and Arts Festival. During 2013, she attended residencies in Berlin and Worpswede, Germany, as well as Truth or Consequences, NM, USA.

Venue and time

Wednesday, June 19th – Riley Park (12pm – 4pm)
Pre- Hillhurst/Sunnyside Farmers Market 3pm-7pm.

Thursday, June 20th – East Village (1pm – 5pm)
Pre-East Village Block Party 6pm – 9pm.

Friday, June 21st – Memorial Park (12pm – 4pm)
Pre-Soft Serve Opening 4pm – 7pm.

Saturday, June 22nd – Memorial Park (12pm – 4pm)

Sunday, June 23rd – Haultain Park (2pm - 5pm)
During 1st Street Art Walk 11am -5pm.