Crazymaking is the culmination of a five-month long residency project with artist Tania Willard and Gallery Gachet. This public exhibition features powerful original prints created by some of BC’s most prolific young First Nations artists, mentored by Willard. More than 40 Vancouver residents also participated in community printmaking workshops.

Aboriginal people are affected and effected by mental health in a number of ways including depression, substance use, and the effects of colonization and residential school. “Crazymaking is about sharing our stories, the beauty, the anger, the confusion and the protest of living in between worlds,” declares Willard.

Crazymaking is a visual journey through aboriginal experience, history and healing of mental health issues. “Our stories and histories reflect the Two Worlds that are in our Creation stories. In many ways the stories our ancestors told shared a world where the real and unreal, the animal and spiritual were united,” continues Willard. “Today we live in a divided world, this work is about understanding our worlds and trying to unite them once more, using art as our psychology and healing as our science.”

The project participants were also mentored at Malaspina Printmakers on Granville Island to produce high-quality prints. The ‘Two Worlds’ residency culminates with an exhibition at gallery gachet in Feb.2007, and was made possible with assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, City of Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health, Redwire Native Youth Media, and private donations.