Window Gallery: Pretty, Pretty, who needs flowers?

PRETTY, PRETTY, WHO NEEDS FLOWERS?: “Twenty years ago, I worked at a golf course restaurant serving up youthful innocence alongside steak and cocktails. Smoking indoors was still customary. Every Sunday, a buffet brunch drew hordes and I hustled to pour coffee and clear sticky plates through the haze. At our breaks, my coworkers and I sat at the “Staff Table” next to the greasy spread. I usually found something to eat, carefully heeding the manager’s decree that the fresh croissants were off-limits. (Real crowd pleasers, croissants were not to be wasted on those who served.)
A coworker named Jill was the only daughter of a wealthy family; my peer in age but not in vantage point. On Sunday shifts, when break time arrived, Jill placed a croissant on a white plate and lit a cigarette. She smoked while we chatted, her gorgeous red lips in a perfect pout and her jet black bob as sleek as could be. I felt our difference but I liked Jill. My eyes grew wide the first time I saw
her exhale a plume of smoke
and slowly,
with intent,
melt the long ash of her cigarette into that
untouched croissant.”

*****

TERRI FIDELAK: is an intermedia artist who uses sculpture, installation, and social practice to question how attention and value are interconnected. In particular, her work explores the intricacies of human relationships to that which is easily disregarded, whether endemic flora or the ephemera of lived experience. Her interest in cultivating a vibrant local arts ecology has evolved from her experiences in various collaborative artist residencies, including at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building; Medalta International Artist Residency; White Rabbit Arts on the Bay of Fundy; and in the Oregon Cascades with Signal Fire Arts, to name a few. She is a co-founder of Silt Studio and an Artistic Associate with Curtain Razors Theatre. Fidelak lives and works on Treaty 4 land in Regina, Saskatchewan.