More of a Blog post:

In the words of Alyssa Edwards, ‘Back back back again!’ I arrived in Iceland May 29th, headed up to NES artist residency June 1st to participate in their 10th anniversary celebrations. Myself and 8 other alumni were invited to teach workshops, host performances and installations for the month of June.

According to Vicky O’Shae the NES board of directors invited me exclusively. My time up in Skagaströnd was essentially to teach a 4 week Metal + Glass course to locals. Which I did! And it was super fun, super great people/students!
Goal: return to teach more, start-up a studio similar to nanopod: Hybrid Studio back in Toronto. oh yeah, I am still in Iceland. Only now I am back in Laugarvatn at Gullkistan Centre for Creativity. 🙂 A bit of my own personal alumni celebration.
In my class were:
Almar
Elsa
Jóhanna
Kristin
Gu∂laug
Hugrún
Gunnur and Erna (sadly not in this pic)

They rocked it!

Even though I packed up 2 large suitcases weighing over 100lbs there were still missing items. I won’t lie some aspects of teaching the course were very challenging simply in locating alternatives. But I now know how to make my own ferric chloride- which is waaay stronger than what I can easily purchase in Toronto. The class learned how to torch fire vitreous enamel, etch copper/brass using PNP blue paper and oil paint sharpies, cast metal using cuttlefish bone as a mould. Form rings, solder (sweat, joint), fold-form a la Charles Lewton-Brain. My biggest take away was how resilient the students were and their Go for it! attitude. We had a torch literally explode fire all over me (no one was burnt or hurt!) and we all remained patient with our English to Icelandic translations and Icelandic to English. I LOVED my time with these people. 🙂
Back at M3 (where I lived for June) I resided with artists, Ron Linn and Jérémy Pailler. Extreme Gentlemen these two. Amazing artists. We discovered that we are all leos, too. Born within the same week (years apart, tho ;p). Haha… yeah.
Quietly I grew Mycelium in my bedroom closet. :p and later in the month several artists allowed me to record their bio-sonifications. Everyone was very different (naturally) and interestingly I found their ‘sounds’ fit their practice. Artist and NES intern, Georgia Bates conducted an interview of me recording Kerryn McMurdo’s bio-rhythms. Kerryn is a co-director at NES and dancer/performer.

Some of their sounds are up on Sound Cloud/Nanotopia and throughout my time here I will continue uploading various flora along with the Mycelium, which is still growing and has travelled with me to Laugarvatn! XO

Tosca would like to thank the Canada Arts Council for their generous support towards her research in renewable, bio-sculpting materials.
“Enriching the lives of Canadians by supporting a vital and diverse arts sector”
• We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.
• Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.