Artist Residency

Over the past five years I attended 4 residencies held by Alchemy Artist Residency. In 2018 and 2021 I participated in programs in Prince Edward County and in 2019 at Artscape, Gibraltar Point, Toronto Island.

In 2018 I spent 5 weeks in Sicily. It was an amazing journey of history, self-discovery and food. I took cooking classes and learned that food traditions are very specific to region. What my grandmother made, m’pignalate, was only made in the small town of Racalmuto where she came from. No one else in Sicily that I visited knew what it was.

Food is important to us. The love of food and family has been instilled in all of us. We all love to cook, share and enjoy each other’s company. My entire family expresses love through cooking. My son became a chef.  For me, food is a wonderous thing. I read about it. I watch shows about it. I think about the next meal while eating the current one. It’s strange that something so obsessive to me and has never been utilized in my art.

This residency was an opportunity to create a synergy between my art and food.  It is a natural progression.  Where else would my love of family, Sicilian ancestry and farming meet an area of my life that I have never linked with before, food? I was hungry to do this. To find this intersection, this catalyst between farm, food and art.