Melissa Naef, a Dawson City–based artist, will create new pieces and lead workshops from Aug. 2 to 15
“Tombstone has been a collaborator in my photography career because it’s where I would gravitate towards, even as a teenager and as a hobbyist, and it’s somewhere I always wanted to go and photograph and appreciate with the use of a camera and lens.”
Melissa Naef
Melissa Naef picked up a camera—specifically, her father’s 35mm camera—at around age 14. She used photography mostly as a hobby in her teenage years, not expecting to ever make a career of it. She eventually pursued a post-secondary education in public relations but kept up her photography on the side, mostly for her own enjoyment of the craft. It wasn’t until she took a chance applying to the Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA) in her hometown of Dawson City, that she realized art school had been the path for her all along. She recently graduated from Halifax’s Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) with a bachelor of arts in fine arts and photography.
Upon returning to Dawson, after completing her studies, Naef applied to the Tombstone Artist Residency, a yearly campground residency in which one artist works out of a wall-tent studio in Tombstone Territorial Park. She had long known about the residency from growing up in Dawson, but finally felt the confidence to put her name in.
“I didn’t really think that I had a place in it, per se, because I was a hobbyist in the beginning,” she says. “But going through the art-school process, you start to learn that residencies are really important for your career, even if they seem like small stepping stones. I’m basically just going to my backyard, but these things are still so valued and hold their own value within the arts community.”
Naef applied right under the wire on the last day of open applications to the residency, after being caught up in her school finals. She wasn’t fully expecting to be accepted, but decided to do an ambitious pitch, which paid off. Within two days, she had heard back.
“Tombstone has been a collaborator in my photography career because it’s where I would gravitate towards, even as a teenager and as a hobbyist, and it’s somewhere I always wanted to go and photograph and appreciate with the use of a camera and lens,” Naef explains. “I definitely just wanted to go back.”
Naef describes her proposed idea for the residency as a connection between the park itself and materiality within the photography process, using surrounding plants and landscapes to create a new body of work that treats the landscape of Tombstone as if it is a living archive.
“It’s a place where memory, history and ecology can come together,” she says. “I’m using the park’s geography boat visually and with invisible narratives, to create a personal archive of the park.”
Naef works primarily with analogue and alternative processes in photography, employing practices such as cyanotyping and film photography with organic matter used in its development. Naef intends to use this residency as an exploration of sorts, digging deeper into plant developing than she has before.
“It’s a bit of a chemistry lesson,” she says. “But it’s really cool the way that you can incorporate the actual organic matter into the full process of creating the images that I will take of the park.”
It’s a unique experience for artists to be out in the wilderness of Tombstone Territorial Park working. While visitors can come and participate in workshops and watch demonstrations, the setting also provides its artists with long periods of solitude to work over its two weeks per year. The residency is currently in its 11th year. According to interpretive supervisor Olivia Masters, Naef was a shoo-in as this year’s choice.
“Melissa has a deep connection to the North,” says Masters. “Her artwork explores identity, relationships and the idea of home, so it’s those connections she uses. She focuses on materiality, community and land, and that resonates deeply with Tombstone’s cultural and natural landscape. Her practice basically invites reflection on how people relate to places, which celebrates the park’s unique character through art.”
The residency is hosted by Yukon Parks, who provide the setting and logistical support, operating in partnership with the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) and Friends of Dempster Country who support the artist selection and promotion and ensure the artist has the space and support to create meaningful work.
“Tombstone is renowned for its dramatic landscapes, rich biodiversity and a lot of the cultural history in the area,” says Masters. “It’s an ideal place for reflection, inspiration and artistic exploration.”
Typically, the call to artists for the Tombstone Artist Residency is posted by YAC each March. The residency is open to all Yukon artists, regardless of experience level.
“It doesn’t have to be an established artist, it can be an up-and-coming artist too,” Masters says. “We don’t just pick from people who have been around for ages and done lots of art shows; new and upcoming artists are welcome as well.”
In finding the best fit for the artist residency, each year, the selection committee looks for someone who will embrace the region’s cultural history as well as its natural beauty, and incorporate their own experience in the wilderness into the work they produce.
Within Naef’s residency, she will lead one formal workshop, one artist talk and two pop-up artist-at-work demonstrations. Naef encourages other newer artists to apply for the residency as well, saying it can’t hurt to just apply and you just might be surprised to be accepted. This is Naef’s first artist residency, and although she second-guessed herself a lot after the application process, she’s glad she put her doubts aside to try something new.
“People all have their own niches,” she says. “As long as you are able to show passion and show genuine interest in the park and in your own craft, you don’t need an arts degree. Even if you’re a hobbyist, as long as that passion still aligns, I think it reads well.”
Visit yukonartscentre.com/opportunities/tombstone-artist-residency to learn more about the Tombstone Artist Residency and to see Melissa Naef’s schedule of events.
Some Of Melissa’s Work
