The heat of the day was waning when I met CAFKA Director and multimedia artist Julie Hall for an evening walk. They picked the trails in the Stanley Park Optimist Natural Area as our destination, a chance to walk by the Grand River as we talked about Kitchener in the summer.
“I love people here,” Hall said. “All walks of life. Anyone I run into on the street, I have these funny interactions with… just bodies on the street, give me anybody!”
Hall cited their East Coast upbringing as the source of their friendliness and made a point of greeting everyone we passed on the trail.
“One of the reasons I’m successful at my job is that I literally just go around town complaining about all my problems,” Hall said. “And then someone says something that’s insightful or connects an idea for me or puts me in touch with the answer.”
Hall was drawn to art at an early age, first through poetry and writing, before discovering a love of drawing.
“I think I wanted to become an artist when I saw Titanic when I was 11, because what a sexy skill,” they said. “Look at this guy getting hella laid because he just drew somebody…I think the first thing I drew was quite possibly a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio.”
Growing up in Middle Sackville, Nova Scotia, in a largely rural area and with a childhood mainly spent outdoors, Hall developed a connection to nature and the land. They moved to Edmonton to get a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta where they experienced culture-shock and struggled to find community.
The 2008 financial crisis sent them back to Nova Scotia to work in their field and, in 2013, they enrolled at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) University to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts, Interdisciplinary, where they also met their partner, Jacob Irish.
“I was going to go to NSCAD for a year just to dry out and stop being so miserable as a scientist,” Hall said. “Then I met Jacob in first year…and Jacob said ‘oh, you must finish your degree’…and I’m super glad I did; school is where I found my peers.”
After completing their degrees in 2017, Hall and Irish moved to Ontario and tried living in different communities, none of which felt right. Then, on a trip to Kitchener in 2019 to visit Irish’s brother, a connection was made.
“Kitchener chose me hard,” Hall said. “From the first time I ever came here, Kitchener pointed right at me and was like, ‘you like it here’. And I said, ‘alright, who am I to disagree’…this city’s got the right amount of grit.”
Once they landed in Waterloo Region, Hall and their partner Irish returned to school to complete the Masters of Fine Arts program at the University of Waterloo in 2022 and establish their practice in visual arts. Hall’s focus is multidisciplinary. They are drawn to fibre arts and performance art where the body is the medium which explores the moment when an artistic impulse connects with and experiences reality.
Hall’s artistic creations are driven by following an impulse and imposing constraints to explore ideas. Although they often work in the visual mediums of fibre arts and sculpture, Hall does not have a visual mind and thinks in words, not images.
“I don’t imagine the artwork, I imagine an idea. I imagine a process,” Hall said. “I can look at raw materials and I can imagine very clearly, but I don’t imagine visually…like I can look at a bunch of ingredients for a recipe and I can taste it and I know exactly what to do with those things.”
Cooking and baking are another means of expression for Hall. They grew up learning from classic Canadian cooking shows such as Wok With Yan and The Urban Peasant, which they asked their mother to record for them. And in-between working in science and as an artist, Hall honed their leadership skills working in kitchens.
“Cooking is about understanding what’s happening and adjusting. You have to be very flexible with cooking,” Hall said. “I like food for the same reason I like comedy—you can’t fake the reaction,” they said.
As we finished our loop around the JA Pollock Family Trailway in the natural area, our conversation turned back to summer and Hall’s hopes for the season. They have plans to reconnect with their East Coast roots through swimming and also want to disconnect from work during off-hours and focus on relaxing and pleasurable pursuits.
“I think with the stability in my life right now I can actually not sell every minute of my time to survive,” they said. “[Jacob and I have] a level of everyday stability that we’ve never experienced [before]…we just keep looking at each other and [saying] ‘life’s good’.”
That optimism and contentment is something that Hall receives from living in Kitchener and from the people they interact with, and it is also something that they give back to the community through their work and their art.
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