Carmella (Softerfruit)

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The Arty Crowd funding sources require inclusion of members who identify as belonging to priority groups encompassing: Indigenous, ethnocultural communities, rural or remote residents, youth, and Francophones (english and french). Hamilton Arts Council further wants to measure its success in attracting members from all the diverse groups we serve in the Greater Hamilton Area arts community, including those who are LGBTQ2S+, and persons with disabilities. We will use the aggregates of the information collected here to measure our success in making The Arty Crowd an accessible and safe space for all who join. We thank the members of the committee from the Safer Spaces Project who advised us in creating an inclusive self-identification process.

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<h2>Carmella Dolmer   25    Filipino-Canadian (mixed)</h2>
I am an emerging multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Hamilton Ontario. At age 11 I moved to the Philippines to live with my mother's extended family, and spent my teen years integrating into rural Filipino society before returning to Canada, where I currently live. With personal struggles restricting much of my young life, I now try to move and play freely—with <b><i>free play</i></b> being my main artistic practice.

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I think that art and beauty are already embedded into the fabric of our everyday lives; with the magic already all around us, and within us, and that artmaking-rules and conventions ruin the perfection of what is already naturally demonstrated by children who play freely: something pure, raw, honest, and unafraid. I think that free play can produce, or at least act as a study of that raw beauty. With this, my goal is to unlearn all of the conventions built into art making, with the hope of someday becoming exactly like a child.

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<h2>Artist Statement</h2>
Having spent most of my life restricted by anxiety, my practice is centered around play as therapy.

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I try to engage with free-form art without rules or expectations, even if I’m afraid, and even if it turns out badly. The purpose is to develop self confidence by using play to push past the self-doubt and into the execution, so that I may start to replace my habit of avoiding with the act of trying. When fear of failure and self-doubt prevent me from starting, then the simple act of doing becomes an act of self-trust, with these pieces emerging as embodiments of one’s hopeful struggle towards self confidence.

<i>I play in marker and sometimes in paint. Otherwise, traditional fine art skills include portraiture, figure drawing, film photography, and contemporary sculpture</i>

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Practice