Life, in many ways, did not change much for our Prompt competition winner MK Warren. For the opening months of the pandemic, she worked as a gardener and spent a good amount of her time outside as she often did. Warren, a graduate from OCAD, studied Fibre Arts and Design, focusing on dyes, stitching, and other surface embellishments. Since then, she has gone on to explore a variety of other disciplines, including aromatherapy, candlemaking, floristry, fabrication, horticulture and agriculture. 

 

Warren's decision to apply to "The Unfamiliar" was prompted by the fact that her work often contained "materials, themes, and forms of the unusual and unfamiliar." She typically works with a mix of materials like flowers (dried and fresh), bones, resin, and other found objects. Her submission consisted of five terrariums or indoor glass sealed gardens. Featuring a personal collection of skulls, likely a raccoon, a skunk, an opossum, and something like a muskrat that she scavenged herself. Particularly drawn to 3-dimensional art, Warren embraces the ability to physically manipulate compositions and convey emotions in ways that feel concrete and tangible because that's what feelings are. 

 

For MK, art has always played the role of Purpose-making. With the extra free time afforded by the lockdown, she was inspired to pull out the "projects to explore when there is more time" boxes. Through this, she could flush out the ideas in her mind and make use of things she felt she may have been hoarding. All of these meaning-making acts providing her with peace of mind in the end. She described having the time to make art and share it as a blessing. Slowing down to observe and reflect on life individually and holistically allowed her to find clarity regarding the next steps in her life despite the ever-changing and uncertain state of the world. 

 

She was recently inspired to rekindle her botanical dyes' hobby and research and has since reincorporated it into her art practice and programming. She is running a community garden at a transitional home for older women in downtown Toronto. They have been growing veggies and flowers and doing weekly drop-in arts, including flower pressing and botanical tie-dye. 

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MK Warren can be reached for commissions and inquiries on Instagram @mkwmakesthings or on her website https://mkwarrendesign.cargo.site/.

 

Also, check out her Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/mkwmakesthings?ref=profile_header. Her pressed flower resin coasters, ornaments, and magnets will be available online next month! 

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