ST!LL BLOOM!NG: Artist Conversations | Episode #6 - Kristen Allicock

In this episode of Artist Conversations, created alongside ST!LL BLOOMING: Emerging in Radiance, Rooted in Resilience, I sit down with artist Kristen Allicock to explore balance, interdependence, and the sacred tension between complementary forces.

Her diptych Yin & Yang: A Love Rooted in Balance visually explores the necessary tension and eventual harmony between feminine and masculine energies. It reminds us that love is not isolation, but active interdependence.

**She, the nurturing pulse of yin, radiates wisdom and softness that shapes the soil of becoming.

**He, the grounded fire of yang, stands firm in truth and forward movement.

Between them grows a love that is cyclical, sacred, and sovereign a union where individuality thrives, and partnership elevates.

In our conversation, Kristen speaks about the influence of her mother and grandmother, how she faces challenges head on, and why monstera foliage becomes a botanical language of connection throughout the work.

The leaves symbolize relational strength reminding us that we bloom not alone, but in communion.

Within the exhibition’s curatorial framework of Repositioning Softness As Power, this diptych affirms that harmony is not passive it is intentional, embodied, and alive.

This is a conversation about sacred balance, ancestral inspiration, and creating spaces — like The Salon — where artists gather, grow, and rise together.

Guest: Kristen Allicock @theartofkoa

Artwork: Yin & Yang: A Love Rooted in Balance | Diptych | 2025

🖼️ ST!LL BLOOMING: Emerging in Radiance, Rooted in Resilience

📍 Art Gallery of Burlington

🗓️ On view until May 24, 2026

ST!LL BLOOM!NG: Artist Conversations | Episode #5 — Kemmy Walker

In this episode of Artist Conversations, created alongside ST!LL BLOOMING: Emerging in Radiance, Rooted in Resilience, I sit down with artist Kemmy Walker to explore perception, environment, and the quiet power of rootedness.

His work Biota reminds us, "we live within nature, and nature lives within us." KW.

A tree rises from the figure’s head like a visual prayer, grounding, protective, alive. In our conversation, Kemmy speaks about blending perception with environment, history, fantasy, and fear, creating work that keeps us close to the earth and close to ourselves.

Within the exhibition’s curatorial framework of Repositioning Softness As Power, Biota anchors us from protected ground. It invites us to reconsider strength not as dominance, but as symbiosis. Not separation, but belonging.

This is a conversation about environmental memory, inner landscapes, and the resilience found in remaining rooted.

Guest: Kemmy Walker (@greenz_269)

Artwork: Acrylic on Canvas | 30" × 40" | 2025

🖼️ ST!LL BLOOMING: Emerging in Radiance, Rooted in Resilience

📍 Art Gallery of Burlington

🗓️ On view until May 24, 2026

ST!LL BLOOM!NG: Artist Conversations | Episode #4 — Funmilola Adeseun

In this episode of Artist Conversations, created alongside ST!LL BLOOMING: Emerging in Radiance, Rooted in Resilience, I sit down with architect and mixed media artist Funmilola Adeseun (@byajike) to explore legacy, colour, and the generational wisdom carried in her work.

Her painting Rooted (2025) reminds us that life is one big garden and we are the blossoms.

From seedling to elder, our growth unfolds through interconnected stages: budding, blooming, ripening, and returning to the earth to regenerate. In rejecting the idea of linear progress, Funmilola embraces a spiral understanding of life, one shaped by culture, kinship, and community.

In our conversation, she shares how her father inspired her creative path, how architecture informs her maximalist compositions, and how joy and opulence become acts of cultural affirmation.

As she writes:

Life is one big garden, and we are the Blossoms. Seeds popping, Children budding, Teens blooming, Adults flowering… Then we return to earth, regenerating, seeding again, blooming again. We Blossom always, with heads held high.

This is a conversation about inheritance, colour as celebration, and survival through continuity, where softness is not fragility, but rooted strength.

Listen now and be inspired.

Guest: Funmilola Adeseun (@byajike)

Artwork: Rooted, 2025, Acrylic & Oil on Canvas (48” x 36”)

Exhibition: ST!LL BLOOMING: Emerging in Radiance, Rooted in Resilience

Dates: February 7 – May 24, 2026