Work & Play at MOP

As a means of better connecting EYA volunteers with the art community over at the Means of Production Garden, we've recently started holding once-a month "work-play" parties in the garden. These work-play parties take place on Sundays from 1-4pm and involve some general garden maintenance tasks, followed by an art activity led by a member of the Means of Production Raw Resource Artists Collective (MOPARRC).

Sharon instructs (photo by: Jenny Stowe)

For those of you not familiar with the Means of Production Garden (affectionately referred to as “M.O.P.”), M.O.P is located in North China Creek Park, and is a working model of sustainable inner-city forestry. Bucking the trend of traditional community gardens, this garden was created in an attempt to reconnect urban artists with a source of locally grown art materials while providing an opportunity to learn how much land is required to grow what we consume in any creative pursuit. M.O.P. involves the production of valuable, organic artist materials such as paper, charcoal, fiber dyes and exotic wood, using permaculture (permanent agriculture) principles to provide the means for many artists to do their work in the future.

Weeding (photo by: Jenny Stowe)

The garden is jointly managed by EYA and the artist’s collective, MOPARRC. The Environmental Youth Alliance, who was involved in the creation of the M.O.P. Garden, maintain the garden through their youth volunteer program and also hold a free beekeeping education program for youth in the garden every summer. MOPARRC engages community in tending, harvesting and producing sculptures with materials grown on site that turn M.O.P. into a “living gallery” or an “Artist Run Forest”.

New garden friends (photo by: Jenny Stowe)

At our first "work-play party" EYA volunteers and MOPARRC members got together to clean up the top garden beds; weeding, ID'ing, cutting back, and re-shuffling many of the plants. Once the beds were cleared of weeds and dead material, environmental artist Sharon Kallis taught everyone how to make natural bed edging using the willow branches that had been harvested from the garden in January. Volunteers took turns chopping and stripping thick willow

Willow edging (photo by: Emily Smith)

branches to make stakes, and weaving the long, flexible branches between them. By the time we were finished the garden beds were all brightly-edged with beautiful yellow fencing.

In April, we returned to the garden for our second session and volunteers did a terrific job of clearing out weeds that had crept into the willow edging, and putting a fresh layer of woodchips over all the garden pathways. At this stage, the garden was looking very well-kept indeed!

    Cultivate healing (photo by:Ella Cooper)

Our hardwork was rewarded by some play time with artist and community builder, Ella Cooper. Ella has come up with an idea called "seed sculptures", and wanted volunteer help in the experimental stages. Everyone was given a small piece of wood and asked to write a word, something they wanted to cultivate with the new season. After drawing and painting on the wood, we then covered the piece with a clay & soil mixture containingflower seeds. These sculptures were then placed in the garden bed with the idea that the Spring rains will wash down the soil into the earth, sowing

To be revealed (photo by: Ella Cooper)

Mud pie? (photo by: Ella Cooper)

the seeds and revealing the art/wish beneath.

Stay tuned to see how they progress over the season!

Our next "work-play party" at the Means of Production Garden is on Sunday, May 6th (1-4pm). Get stuck in to some earth-shaping, body-waking garden activities. At this garden session we're going to be picking up shovels and digging out a platform to support your favourite bad-evil band, the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra. RSVP here: http://maymopsession.eventbrite.com/.

Smiling garden artists (photo by: Ella Cooper)

Who / what is the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra?? David from MOPARRC (Means of Production Artists Raw Resource Collective) is their frontman and he produces lots of his instruments from materials grown in the garden. Here the band are performing the sing-along theme song from the Means of Production Garden... 

You can view all of the upcoming volunteer sessions and work-party events on EYA's event calendar.

Thanks to photographers Jenny Stowe (www.blog.stowephotography.com), Emily Smith, and Ella Cooper for sharing their photos.