ARTIST WORKSHOP: Gathering Debris - A Drawing Workshop with Oil Pastels

Oil pastel workshop with artist Reyhan Yazdani. All ages. No previous experience required. In connection with Debris of a Mother Tongue: #2 Bombs, this hands-on workshop explores drawing as a way of recording, reflecting on, and archiving landscapes, rupture, and distance. Using oil pastels on paper, participants will experiment with layering, tracing, and mark-making to consider how materials carry traces of body, memory and place. No previous drawing experience is required and all materials will be provided. Anyone who is unable to pay for the fee can make a request to waive the fee. Please send an email to [email protected] ---- Reyhan Yazdani (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and designer currently based in Vancouver, the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people. Her research-driven work migrates between a range of media including handmade paper, objects, social invitations, and creative writing to engage with ontological, material and spatial inquiries on themes of exile, linguistic displacement, and diasporic approaches to care and belonging. Yazdani holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and a Master of Architecture from the University of Tehran. Her practice has been supported through grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and BC Arts Council, alongside exhibitions and artist residencies across Canada. Her work has been presented at Kelowna Art Gallery, Seymour Art Gallery, Two Rivers Gallery, Open Studio, and Centre A, with recent and upcoming residencies including Nomadisms at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2026) and Fondazione Officine Saffi in Milan (2027). Yazdani is an Assistant Professor at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. ---- Supported by a grant from the Township of Langley. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia