dear visitor,

this website has been designed and organized by me in order to share, organize, and make public some of my work. i would describe my involvement in this page to be somewhat inconsistent. over the past few years i kept the domain and uploaded different kinds of information including writing, painting, and images of other collaborative or creative work that i have done. i am currently rethinking this space as something less documentary and more emergent. what i mean by this is that while i want to share things that i consider completed work (art objects and writing), i understand that much of my work is currently in flux and a more useful use of this space right now would represent that flux. part of this flux i am describing has been provoked by my interest in better understanding the way that i make my work in relation to others. i wish to honor this relationality by inviting anyone who wishes to interact with the work to contact me, comment on the work, or participate in its making if they feel compelled. my plan is not to contact and ask anyone to engage with me in any prescriptive way. rather, if you are reading this message now and you find yourself interested in anything you find in this digital collection, then i simply would love to know why and invite you to respond. perhaps no one will respond and that is fine. i’m writing this on january 28th, 2022. i am currently in the proposal stage of my phd dissertation in art education at the university of british columbia. i’m listening (poorly) to a podcast hosted by julian feeld, travis view, and jake rockantansky with brad troemel. i am sitting on a couch cushion i pulled onto the floor because my wooden folded chair gives me back pain and typing on my keyboard as one of my close friends co-works in a writing zoom room that we populate to help us sustain our work and hold each other accountable. i have been struggling to understand the trajectory of my work, what moves i should make for it to be/become meaningful to me and others. i have been struggling to understand what it means to study art and pedagogy in 2022 nearly two years after the coronavirus pandemic started spreading globally highlighting simultaneous pandemics and threats that have been described as different kinds of crises (ecological, economic, moral, ethical, colonial, etc). i am trying to better understand the power relations embedded in tensions, stories, images, calls, and responses. most recently i have been thinking about art, pedagogy, and correspondence. conceptual and material explorations of address, response, letters, correspondence, and how these things are all related to my interest in art and pedagogy. these concepts and materials curate and orient my thoughts. my thoughts pour out here through writing. the philosopher and political thinker hannah arendt is often cited for describing writing as thinking. this is what i am doing here. i recognize arendt to be one of many thinkers i am indebted to in a variety of ways, i also understand her claim to be fairly obvious and not always true. i believe painting is thinking, as is drawing, texting, and playing games. writing, painting, drawing, texting, cooking, and playing games are thinking sometimes. sometimes because not all writing requires much thought and the same can be said about the other activities i list. writing might be the most shareable and accessible form of thinking that i engage currently which is true for people who read and write in english. and so i continue to write. the concepts and materials i am thinking with(art, pedagogy, and correspondence) influence the way i put my books in order on my book shelves, they encourage me to walk with casper (a dog that keeps me company and gets anxious when left alone) in repetitious routes one week and on new routes another. together (me and casper), with our companion mars, we inhabit a small apartment in the city known as vancouver, british columbia. through my studies i know that all of us being here, in this city, as settler colonizers, and as a hypoallergenic poodle shitzu pup, comes with the responsibility of finding ways to recognize and take responsibility for our unique relationship to this place. this means learning more about the peoples who have lived here much longer than we have and paying attention to the spaces we inhabit. the questions circulating for me are; how do we perpetuate harm? how do we work to dismantle systems of power? what are concrete ways give back and build differently? i have been asking myself these questions, but i have few answers if any. mostly, i feel compelled to move slowly in this work. this is not because i believe that there are not urgent needs. there are many urgent needs and they all need to be addressed. i am referring to a different kind of slowness. a slowness that is about the intersections of self and society. the slowness of building relationships and understanding who we are. i’ve been introduced to this kind of slowness through reading work of black and indigenous feminists, through considering attunement, and through witnessing friendships grow, shift, and change over time. i move slowly in recognition of what i do not know and what i wish to not mis(take). i move slowly in hopes of sustaining friendships, love, and practices of care. this website might become an extension of these hopes or it might not. it might be a kind of blog space or it might just end up showcasing some things i do with and alongside my friends. i haven’t really decided. all i know now is that i am tired of writing personal bios that try to explain who i am in a poised package. the truth is that i’m still figuring it out and never feel like the cv oriented description of my work is all that satisfying. often cvs do not do enough to recognize how all of our work depends on a bunch of interrelated practices and peoples. i do have a cv and it morphs. it makes its appearance here and there when i am asked to show it. i will show it to you if that’s really your thing, but like i said i despise it in its current form. one day i would like to make it exciting. that hasn’t happened yet. for now, i want to say thanks for reading through this letter. ask me questions if you are compelled. my email is angelainezbaldus@gmail.com. if you email me i will likely also share my mailing address. thanks again for visiting.

sincerely,

angela inez baldus (aib)