Iyha Arts | June 2021

Week 4: Honour and Acknowledge Difficult Emotions (finale of the RRR residency)

Although my brother, and I are spiritual twins, over the years we had grown distant. However, I could always count on him to support me in my artistic endeavours. After Martin’s passing, his life partner sent me these photos of him at my last exhibition at Studio C. My heart felt weak as I looked at the expression on his face. I knew, without a doubt, he was proud. He may not have said it in many words but, as I gazed into the images of him it was undeniable. I can’t believe he’s gone…

How do you go through the grief cycle in just 4 weeks? Impossible. So, I’ve decided to continue my healing process for another 10 weeks. Attached, is a video of the completed walking stick that will accompany me throughout my healing journey.

I’d like to thank my grandniece, Kierra, for supporting, and holding sacred space for me throughout this process.

28 June 2021

During her residency with Access, Iyha Arts has been following a journey as outlined through Grief and the Healing Arts, a structured fourteen-week workshop she took a few years ago when approaching an important change in her life. The following posts, in her words, follow the structure of this practice of grieving through art.

Week 1: Honoring and Acknowledging the Past.

As children, my brother and I spent most of our time out in nature. Luckily for us, we lived right across the street from the creek.

Week 2: Honoring and Acknowledging the Loss

You don't realize how much you miss someone until they are gone. My brother Martin and I were spiritual twins, he was always a step ahead of me in over-standing one and two things. Although I miss him here in the earthly realm, he has taken his seat in the ancestral realm. Rest in power my brother.

Nuff nuff love and respect.

Week 3: honoring and acknowledging the pain and sadness

I didn't realize how much pain, and sadness that I had trapped in my cellular memory from the loss of my brother Martin until I placed my feet within the water. Feeling the river stones between my toes , and on the soles of my feet, helped me to release emotions that were laying dormant that I didn't even know that I had. When my brother Martin shared with me that his prostate cancer was back automatically I wanted to serve and protect him. But if you know my brother Martin, he wasn't having any of that! He chose to live out the last days of his life making peace with the pain, and sorrow through adventure amongst nature. So I'm following your lead, big bro, and doing the same!

10 June 2021

"I don't know where to start. So I guess I'll start off by sharing these pictures of me during my residency.

It is very difficult to share this journey because it truly does begin with the death of my brother who passed away on Good Friday of this year. So as I am creating and processing this experience he's with me at all times. I don't think I've ever experienced such great loss in regards to losing a family member, as a matter of fact. Other than my nephew who passed away 17 years ago, he—my brother Martin—is the first. It's kind of why I started this venture with deciding to truly reconnect back into nature, after healing from sciatic nerve damage in my back.

Before he passed, my brother and I would go out to the mountains and we would hike. We hit the trails here in the city and I would grab my trusty walking stick that I had cut down, I believe it was 18 years ago, while I was camping with my youngest daughter. My brother was an avid believer in connecting with your surroundings, especially out in nature. He always said that if you were looking for God, just go out into nature. Hit the mountains baby. Hit the mountain and then you'll see the handprint of God."

“the picture of the kitty cat on the limb is my grandkiddy Nala. She often accompanies me as I go hiking on the trails.” Image of the black kitten “Now that I have my own mew mew, nubias he will take her place when he's old enough to do so.”

“I can't believe that it's already June, the first day of my residency with RRR (Remote Research Residency) with Arts Assembly and Access Gallery! I can't begin to tell you what this residency means to me. Throughout the month of June, I will be exploring and honouring the gift of transmutation and manifestation. Exploring the concepts of death and re-birth. I'll do my best to share with you my process as I embark upon my journey of becoming.”

Iyha Arts (she/her) was born in England and is of African-Jamaican descent. She now resides in Calgary. Though Iyha burst onto the Calgary arts scene only a few years ago, she already displays the characteristics of an important, indeed remarkable, talent.

She is a sculptor, painter, jeweller and artisan whose work has been exhibited across Canada. She began her artistic exploration as a form of healing and has been transformed via that journey. Now Iyha uses mixed media to explore her relationship to her ancestors – welcoming them to share a seat at the table so she can hear their messages and gifts of insight. She uses the West African practice of Sankofa, translated as “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.” African - Jamaican tradition is a living body of knowledge that has been developed, sustained, inherited and transmitted from generation to generation. Iyha welcomes her ancestors to share their knowledge through her spontaneous, intuitive creation of art. She has transformed her own cultural and spiritual identity through the ancestors’ guidance.

“If we know the beginning well, the end will not trouble us.” (African Proverb)