Agua Viva

hibition and performance that explores our connection to water  beyond the material and physical. Artists attending Santa Rosa Arts and Healing were asked to create work  that responded to concepts of water as a healer, teacher, embodiment  and Cathartic force.

Exhibition curated by Rocio Graham.

Presenting Artists:

Amanda Ma (U.S.A) is a ceremonialist, community arts organizer, and  weaver of textiles and connections. She comes from Filipinx and Celtic  ancestry -lineages with culturally rich traditions. She serves an  Artistic Programs Manager in the U.S. Southwest, helming her region’s  largest festivals, public art program, and directing multiple gallery  sites. Amanda’s artistry is grounded in ritual, symbolism of sacred  objects, femininity, and natural materials.

Nix Palomba (United Kingdom) is a Latina post-graduate theatre  teaching artist, storyteller and intuitive tarot healer based in London, UK.  She comes from a matrilineal line of storyteller healers and uses the performing arts and oral alchemy to heal, teach, channel, and translate the language of intuition through the mediumship of musculature. Nix has developed a practice called ‘Embodied Tarot’ which  combines the somatic acting and Laban mind-body centres.

Laura Admussen was born on Mohkinstsis, Treaty 7 territory; Calgary,  Alberta, where she currently lives and works. The seeds of her intuitive, inquisitive, and industrious nature were planted by her Mother, Grandmother, and her relationship with the land.   She  created a conceptual foundation for her art practice during  undergraduate studies at Emily Carr University. And found a home to study and nurture her passion for fine-craft traditions at NSCAD University, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. Her artistic expressions and topics of interest continue to expand through independent studies in the fields of art therapy, textiles, psychology,  and spirituality.

Tamera Olsen, B.F.A., B.Ed. is the artist in residence at Louis Riel School in Calgary, Alberta, where she recently collaborated with 1000 students, teachers, community members and volunteers over the course of a year to realize a mosaic 10’x 56’ on the exterior façade. She is a  painter, print maker, photographer, and sculptor, and is in museum and private collections across the United States and western Canada. Her solo show, Reflections on the Inner Landscape, exhibited in Burnaby, British Columbia and documented her time in the southwest desert of the United States. Tamera has served as a volunteer on arts councils and museum boards throughout her career. She is a certified teacher in Alberta and British Columbia, an interdisciplinary author and  collaborator, and a lifelong learner.

Samantha Davies is a self taught mixed media artist living in the UK,  exploring the creation of monochromatic, timeless art to evoke emotions and connection. She lays bare her emotions on the floor of her studio creating in a mediative rhythmic dance, large scale sculpted silk art.  Her work reflects her life experiences, the twists and turns of womanhood and the beauty of change, transmuting experiences into art that embraces imperfections with inspiration from the natural world  around her.

Ashley Slemming, or "The Contemplative Curator," is a curator, art writer, and arts educator. Since 2015, they have worked with a variety of artists and arts organizations, each creatively engaging in visual and cultural storytelling projects in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.  Ashley has developed programs and exhibitions with Alberta Printmakers, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition (TREX) Program, Alberta University of the Arts, Colouring it Forward,  Exposure Photography Festival, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, and the Marion  Nicoll Gallery.