live slow, bike fast
Hey :~) it’s me, Celina.
I’ll introduce myself as my human first. I am a fluid, funky gal with a bong hit of fierce. I feel most myself under a canopy of trees, feet submerged in a flowing river or excavating the nectar out of a sweet peach while it rolls down the wrist. I love being around my circle of people and equally enjoy the company of the moon.
I live, play and slumber party on Vancouver Island. I didn’t always.
After years of advocating, securing permits for my newly renovated community co-work space tucked beside my personal artist studio in Jasper National Park, I found out that I had the windows on the wrong side of the building. A wildfire roared through the town. All that was left of my building was a crooked kiln, and a single cup peacefully sleeping on a stack of bricks framed by a heroic pastel blue mountain range. Still standing tall, almost mockingly, as they have for millennia.
I spent a blissful 7 years in the mountain town paradise of Jasper. It vastly shaped my spirit and art. I learned to love something bigger than myself, what devotion looks like. That was my 20’s, learning to become a good villager. Everyone wants to build a village, but it’s nothing without its villagers.
Slowly as we sorted through the towns rubble, it became evident there wasn’t much that was able to withstand the heat. But what did survive was our essence and, well, ceramics.
From tree to sea, mountain to prairie, my work is largely inspired by where I plant my feet. What I feel. Who I am in that moment.
I believe it is in my greater purpose to illuminate the connection between our inner and outer landscapes. I am not interested in doing things, to do things. I am here to create work that reflects fluctuating landscapes, activism with functionality to impact generations beyond my existence.
Art will out live us all, after all.
I am an artist seeking
presence over performance
What is live slow, bike fast
You’ll hear them say “Live fast, die young”
We live in a world of fast. Fast internet, fast fashion, fast food, fast shipping. It all moves so fast. A young version of me once said to my grandpa “I wish my birthday would come faster” and he simply replied “don’t wish your life away, one day you’ll blink and it will feel like it went by too fast.”
I want to take the scenic route, to learn to garden, to make a wicked batch of lemon crinkle cookies, to create limitless pieces, to learn guitar, to enjoy the fleeting sunshine, to nest in my home and I want travel inwards and outwards. I don’t want those things to go fast, I’ll save the fast moments for my bike, the hill, the running shoes.
Instead of living fast, I want to live slow.
