August 25, 2014 - Kathleen walked with me from her neighborhood to her studio along the Lachine canal. This is also the trajectory where she walks with her poodle during their daily walk around.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Kathleen Vaughan is a visual artist, writer, scholar, and educator whose work reflects a trans-disciplinary orientation to questions of place and belonging and the theme of ‘home’. She aims to balance her love for post-industrial sites, urban forests and green spaces with critical engagement, and often uses walking and mapping as method and form. Kathleen uses textile practices, painting, drawing, photography, installation, audio and video. Her work comprises multiple approaches, studio-based, collaborative/participatory and community-based. Active within her Montreal neighbourhood of Pointe-St-Charles, Kathleen has worked with seniors and children in social housing, schools and community agencies. She has also developed creative projects with children, adults and seniors in Toronto, Iceland, Latvia and the Netherlands, oriented to cultivating knowledge and awareness of ‘place’ and building community.
REFLECTIONS TO WALK WITH
How do you emplace yourself? Are there trajectories that you repeat, that you become familiar with, and that help you feel at home?
Do you find walking can help you disengage from the pressures of life such as work-related obligations and inter-personal relations?
When you are out in the world, how does the quality of surprise impact your relationship to walking?