Christi York is a harvester and a weaver. All of the materials she collects for her artwork are found in and around her home on Vancouver Island. She hopes that her work will encourage people to pause and take notice of the natural world around us all.
Christi is featured in our annual Positively Petite exhibition that showcases miniature artwork created by local artists.
Find out more about Christi and her work below!
History
Christi started her artistic journey as a graphic designer. This allowed her to have a creative outlet while generating income. She moved into jewellery design which is where she started focusing on upcycling materials.
About 7 years ago, Christi came upon the EartHand Gleeners Society, an artist-driven community group that focuses on environmental art projects and learning skills to use the land in a constructive and low-impact way. There she learned a lot of techniques that inform her art today and that you can make unique art pieces without having to buy all of your supplies.
When she moved to Vancouver Island 5 years ago this pushed her process even further as she was living much closer to the wildness of nature and surrounded by natural materials. Christi enjoys mixing artistic mediums to create unique pieces. As long as materials are harvested responsibly, there are nearly endless possibilities using the variety of goods nature provides.
Christi enjoys mixing artistic mediums to create unique pieces. There are endless possibilities using the variety of goods nature provides.
Creation
Christi is a “huge hippie at heart” and as a result, she wants to use materials that tread lightly on the earth. She harvests and processes all the natural materials she gathers in and around her home on the Island. Christi notes, “there’s so much knowledge to be gathered from plants, and in turn, our history as humans” as we have lived off the land for centuries. This inspires her art that combines traditional methods with contemporary style.
She often uses shells, cedar bark spokes and day lily leaves as they are fruitful near her home. She follows the natural ecosystems, things that bloom and die with the seasons, and natural materials at the end of their life cycle like downed trees. There is so much potential with these harvested items and so many techniques to get unique results from the same material. Christi loves the process of her work which keeps her feeling inspired and excited to create. Finding new methods for handling and processing is the fun, albeit challenging, part of working with natural products.
If treated well, kept out of the sun and kept dry, my work will last for hundred of years, however if left outside it would naturally biodegrade back into the earth.
Change
When COVID-19 hit, it affected Christi as it has affected many artists. Christi “stopped weaving for 6 months” because of the anxieties of an uncertain world and also the practical matter of where to store art, especially if you’re weaving large baskets.
This pushed Christi to try a new form of art — pigments and eco-prints. Creating natural dyes and inks took plenty of effort but being able to learn a new process that was still related to her passions was exciting.
For her pieces in Place des Arts’ Positively Petite exhibition, Christi has created pieces that show her passion for weaving and nature.
Luckily, her work naturally lends itself to constraints, as there is a need to follow what is available in the natural world at any given time, so she’s used to working under limitations like the constraints of the exhibition.
Inspiration
Christi is inspired by artists who use recycled or natural materials in their work and manage to elevate the material. Artists like Ann Carrington, Joe Hogan, Laura Ellen Bacon, Peter Gentenaar and Ane Lyngsgaard.
When it comes to creating art, she had this advice for those who want to make a career as an artist:
- Look to a professional artist who does the same type of work you do and pick their brain. Find out how they live and their day-to-day.
- Find your career – the jobs Christi did in the past felt like jobs and that causes burn-out, especially if you are trying to promote yourself as a freelancer
- Try to allow yourself to play. Another artist, Clarissa Callesen, had this to say about her experiences as an artist: “Creativity literally becomes your job. The joy of simply making art and playing has a tendency to get tangled up in commerce, self-promotion and always having an end product.” The only way to get back to enjoying the work is to play around.
“Find your People”
When Christi first was trying to learn basketry, there was not a lot online. She was able to join the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild for a meet-up in Seattle and the first time she went to that, it felt like everyone was speaking her language. They meet regularly during COVID-19 via Zoom to reconnect. The last time Christi was able to join one of these meetings it was a true sense of belonging among people who share Christi’s passions and interests.
You can view Christi York’s work for our Positively Petite alongside 36 other artists online here and in-person at Place des Arts. We welcome individual and core bubble visits to our exhibition spaces by appointment. Please call 604-664-1636 ext. 0 to book.
You can also follow Christi on Instagram or view her website here.