By: Jenna, Ivy, Fadi, and Aurora

Jennifer Illanes is an artist who recently displayed vast talents in her a CSpace Marda Loop exhibition Pilgrimage of Stories and Stones. From March 6th to March 20th, one could see the many stunning pieces of her works of leather, metal, fabric, poetry, and sculpture.

Aurora:  So how did your childhood influence you and your art?

I was obsessed with castles and knight's in shining armour. I wasn't really interested in King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable, but I loved Lord of the Rings and fantasy books and that kind of stuff. And now I'm doing a lot of work about the medieval age, and stories are a big inspiration for my work as well. I was a voracious reader as a child, I went through books like nobody's business, and I was at the library every week, getting another stack during the summertime.   Now I like to discover stories and talk about them in my work.

Ivy: Did you have any mentors that were a part of your training?
Yes. I graduated from Alberta University of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Sculpture. I had my professors there, which were a big help, like Blake Senini who was one of my instructors and he was amazing. Katie Ohe as well, my current two mentors are my boss, Natalie Gerber, who I do silk screening with. She has been instrumental in teaching me a lot and just helping me grow. And then Shona Rae has taught me both bone carving and helped me get better at my metal working.

Aurora:  What was the theme of your CSpace exhibition?
The project was that I applied to go to Scotland on a research trip (with a grant from Calgary Arts Development). I went there for 34 days, and I did a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a journey for spiritual growth, or emotional growth. I did a lot of research into the artwork there. But I also had a lot of wonderful experiences that were more spiritual related as well. The pieces that I have in my exhibition, they range from talking about political issues in the history of Scotland, from the medieval age, and beforehand, to religious trauma, and magic and paganism, the Celtic people that lived before and then how I interpret that and use magic in my artwork today.

Jenna:  Which piece was your favourite? And why is that the case?
The suit of armour... I've only made two suits - this one and one before. The first one I did was in art school, and it was stressful and very difficult but I was very proud of it. And now in making it again, I silkscreened the fabric myself, and my technique is way better than the first time around. So I'm really proud of the craftsmanship that went into that one, just to prove to myself that I can do it better than I did before.

Fadi:  So how long did it take you to make that?
I couldn't give you a fully accurate guess. But the printing took about eight hours. I worked on the pattern for probably about eight hours digitally. And then I worked on the pattern for the armour, probably about 10 to 15 hours, and then making the suit of armour itself was probably about 20 hours.

Fadi: Does religion influence any of your pieces? Because I noticed your poem was titled The Devil's Sermon.
Yes, religion does inspire some of my work, specifically, that I left a pretty high demand Christian sect in the beginning of Covid. Because everyone had to stay home, I stopped going to church, and I realized how unhappy I had been and I hadn't noticed ... That piece is called the Devil's Sermon because I started writing it at the Devil's Pulpit, which is this place in Scotland called Finnich Glen. It's a small little canyon, and the walls are red, filled with iron. And the water is filled with iron as well, so it looked red, and then once it gets to about like a foot deep, it turns black because the light can't get through. So you have red and black water with red walls. And then there's this stone formation that looks like a lectern or a pulpit. They call that the Devil's Pulpit, and the local folklore is that the devil comes down and teaches the witches late at night. I happened to start writing that poem while I was there, so I called the Devil's Sermon because of that. But it doesn't have anything to do with the devil, it has to do with me leaving religion.

Ivy:  What does being an artist mean in 2023?
The hard thing about art right now, in the type of world we live in, is that it's quite easy to think that there's no point behind it because we see the drive to make money. And you don't always make money with art, especially when you're starting out, or you haven't found your niche yet. But I think it's important to recognize that art is very different than it has been for millennia. The artwork that we make out of this idea of fine art is a very new idea. It's only in the past couple of 100 years that we have that opinion ... Before you had master painters and master sculptors, people just made things. And they decorated things as they wanted to. In the medieval ages, you had people that were in charge of designing these beautiful magnificent chapels and cathedrals. And they were just seen as everyday, like the leatherworker down the street having the skills to make anything that you could want out of leather, but it wasn't seen as a fine art. But it takes the same level of skill. We may not have master craftsmen like we used to back in the day. But I think that craftsmanship is still very important. And the ideas are the next also very important concept. To me, it's more important than which material I pick and choose my material after my concept company. And to be an artist, nowadays, I think mostly just take what is important to you and find a way to present it. People have more of a focus on making money and selling their work, when other people have more of a focus on showing their work in galleries. And either one is fine. But I think it comes down to the drive, why we make and why we have the desire to be the best craftsman that we can. 

Jenna:  Do you have any ideas or plans for any upcoming projects?
I am going to be applying to show the same exhibition up in Edmonton. So I'm hoping that I can do that, which would be great. There's also a micro grant that CAD is coming out with and I'm going to see if I can use it to maybe take a couple more jewelry classes. I've learned a lot from Shona Rae. But I'd like to brush up on my techniques a little bit because I do like doing metal work. And I would like to sell it more. But at the moment, I don't feel comfortable selling my work as jewelry, because I don't have the same level of expertise as my peers.

Jenna:  Do you have any plans to stray from the medieval focus of your to the future or more to the past or other times in history?
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I think I will. Right now I'm definitely with the medieval age because it's something that I like, it's intriguing to me, and I want to work with it for a while. But once I'm kind of done with it for now, then I'll probably move on to something else. I have done a little bit of work with inspiration from the Victorian era, which they quite enjoy. But yes, I think it's just whatever strikes my interest. So right now it's the medieval age. And who knows in like five years, it could be something totally different.

Eli Smart

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