Hi, my name is Jacqueline, but my friends and family call me Jaq. I am a single mom of 3 children, and along with owning and managing a tattoo shop, I am also a paramedical tattooist based in Edmonton Alberta. I became a Losstender for Soloss because I know and trust the environment our shop would give, and the amazing opportunity it would create for people to heal in a safe and comfortable space. Our studio is very passionate about mental health since WE are every day people healing on our own journeys, so we can all see the value in healing mental health. We have had the honor to work with clients on their healing paths, and becoming partners with Soloss only gives us more possibilities to help heal others on a larger scale.

So how can ink therapy help you heal? Tattooing provides a therapeutic release and leaves you with a permanent adornment that can aid the freeing of bottled up emotions. In the words of Marianne Williamson “each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world” and the process of healing through tattoos is still undiscovered territory for many, so I aim to bend the traditional roles of the healing process.

If you feel this resonates with you, I would love to gain your trust in letting me guide you through the restorative effect of tattoos.

Hi, my name is Jacqueline, but my friends and family call me Jaq. I am a single mom of 3 children... Read More

Hello and welcome, my name is Yusi and I’m one of your Losstenders. My background is Somali and I’ve lived in Canada for the past 18 years. I’ve always used art as a way to cope with my own emotional experiences and this journey has allowed me to explore life with curiosity.

Even though my life has been rocky sometimes due to loss, making art has allowed room for me to be in motion with my emotions. I call myself a creative creator. I flow from one type of art form to another depending on what my needs are for that day. I feel that creation is limitless and boundless so that we are free to express ourselves to the truest form of who we are even with loss.

I’m grateful that you are curious about this opportunity and hope that we can work together to explore and create something healing.

Menu for creation:

Voice of the free spirited: We can write poems, sing, or rap. The choice is yours because you have a voice!

Movement within the moment: We can dance and tell stores with our bodies. Tell me does that come to you with ease?

Frozen in time: They say a picture can speak a thousand words. What words would you want to capture in the moment?

Flowing with colors: Paint what you feel and trust that it’s real. What color are you today

Hello and welcome, my name is Yusi and I’m one of your Losstenders. My background is Somali and I... Read More

My name is Christina Ignacio-Deines. I am an artist, designer, and event producer based in Edmonton on Treaty 6. I’ve been a professional artist for over 15 years. I studied fine art and engineering before starting my company—Threshold—and I try to balance analytical thinking with emotion and intuition.

I have many interests, and this comes through my work in various ways. Projects I’ve done include: dinner parties, weddings, charity and corporate galas, homes of all sizes, offices and restaurants, paintings, drawings, fashion shows, dance parties, and even a hotel suite for the lead singer of Twisted Sister, who wanted to surprise his wife while he was on tour. What I love most about what I do is the chance to be part of people’s lives during times of change, to make space for all of us to experience our biggest emotions, and to find ways for people to be heard and seen.

I’ve worked with people in the midst of a late stage miscarriage, who were newly divorced or on the brink of one, marginalized folks, BIPOC and queer communities, people living with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and people in crisis. One of my projects involved making 8’ tall paper lantern houses for a women’s shelter fundraiser, to light the way home for women and children experiencing family violence; I once made a small magical memorial tree for a friend who lost his Dad.

My own experiences with grief and loss include: losing five people very close to me during the pandemic (all unrelated to covid), coping with an extended illness that had me in and out of the hospital for over a year, managing mental health and neurodivergent challenges, motherhood, and having a daughter with a genetic condition that could significantly shorten her life.

In our work together, we can explore many ways of thinking about and making art, and I will bring all the skills I have to tell your story in the best way I can. This may involve: drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, installation (which is a kind of sculpture that you can walk around in); it may include elements of writing, performance, or sound, which are mediums I’ve been exploring more recently; we could design a space or experience together; or it may be something new that we come up with.

If you knew all the things I know, what would you create for yourself? I’m interested in how you think and how you experience the world, and I will try to express that in a way that is real, inviting, and meaningful. My work is bold and unique because I’m good at translating your experience into a space, experience, or artifact that we can share with others. Ultimately, my work is about connection and belonging, and I look forward to sharing this experience with you.

My name is Christina Ignacio-Deines. I am an artist, designer, and event producer based in Edmont... Read More

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Greetings, my name is KazMega and I am a multidisciplinary artist based in treaty 6 territory, Amiskwaciwâskahikan, paying taxes to the corporations known as the City of Edmonton, the Province of Alberta, and Canada of the Common Wealth. My background is of Caribbean heritage, whom historically were some of the first indigenous peoples to come into contact with the European explorers. I lead with this in context to being a losstender to acknowledge those of us who are experiencing intergenerational and compounded loss. When it goes back so far, where do we even begin? Luckily for us, Caribbean people came up with a method of healing that aligns with our earliest forms of expression, and I am extremely grateful to have been born into this method of healing. I myself am a frontline worker who has been in the industrial complex for over a decade and is yet to burn out using these methods. Methods developed by marginalized youth in the late 1970’s that allows for a flow of expression that acknowledges the many modalities of communication, and encourages peaceful dialogue.

The method eventually became known as Hip Hop. Not hip-hop the musical genre with the colourful dreadlocks and jewel studded grills, but Hip Hop the kulture that has grown into almost every corner of the planet and will always first and foremost promote peace through creative dialogue. Whether you heal best through spoken word, movement, tactile, or visual, I can probably help whip something up and much of the time on the spot. I very much hope to immerse my sharers on a journey towards self mastery through the practice of art, and hopefully develop healthy routines that promote peace inside and out.

Greetings, my name is KazMega and I am a multidisciplinary artist based in treaty 6 territory, Am... Read More

I am a body/movement Losstender with Soloss. Along with my fellow Losstenders, I will act as an agent for creative expression. In my journey as a theatre artist, I have often turned to the body as a vehicle to express story. In my journey with mental health, I’ve also turned to my body for finding and creating meaning from what I’m experiencing.

I have experienced loss both expected and unexpected. Once, a friend of mine passed away from terminal cancer and I happened to be in the middle of a singing intensive when I found out. It dawned on me then how music and art can serve us in times when we are cracked open. I’ve witnessed and worked through the impact of alcoholism and addiction in my family. What I know is that everyone needs support.

And so, like you, I am vulnerable to the ungovernable deck of cards we are dealt over time. So, may we lean in, allow a story to take form/formlessness and integrate the experience into the ever-evolving story of who you are. It is my intent to trust our bodies’ wisdom, create something meaningful and contribute to destigmatizing communal and individual experiences of grief and loss.

As a theatre artist, I collaborate with others and create solo work as well. I’ve performed dance pieces and my full length solo show called Stigma, Pistil and Style . It is my desire to always create work that has deep meaning for me, that is rooted in integrity of the body. So, what working with each other will look like will vary from person to person but it might look like two strangers getting to know each other , finding what connects us, discovering what is meaningful to you, and using the body as a vehicle to express that.

This may look like :

-Writing a letter from the body (the spine, the heart, the throat, the inside of your elbow) to someone or something without sending it.

-Creating masks using a body based approach

-You telling a story while I interpret it through movement. It could be any of those things and or beyond!

I am left-handed and collaborate with a theatre company named Wee Witches, so I’m definitely a Witch.

I am a body/movement Losstender with Soloss. Along with my fellow Losstenders, I will act as an a... Read More

Hello, my name is Jessica, but most people call me Jess. I was born and raised in Edmonton Alberta.

I love the diversity in this city and I find it intriguing getting to know others and sharing our experiences.Throughout my life I have experienced an abundance amount of trauma and loss, which came with very confusing and unwanted feelings and emotions. Touching on a few, the suicide of my father left me feeling empty and helpless with so many unanswered questions. The incarceration of a close family member left me feeling shame and deprived of a relationship yet comforted knowing they were warm and fed as prior homelessness was a reality for them. My personal experiences have given me the natural ability to be understanding and compassionate and allows me to show empathy.

Although I am still learning about my grief and loss and probably will be for a long time, I have found a few ways to be able to channel those feelings, emotions and difficult moments. Spiritual energy movement, touch energy healing, meditative energy movement, decompressing in a safe trusted space, finding innate objects that I attach to connections of lost loved ones and creating artistic jewelry and accessories with intention and meaning are some of the tools I personally use and would love to share with you.

Can you imagine what it would be like to collectively create artistic jewelry, share experiences or use touch energy healing as a way to place your grief and loss instead of bottling up those emotions? Wouldn’t it feel good to share space, build connections and friendships and participate in some energy healing and learning with someone ? If so, I would love to meet you! You deserve some reprieve too and however that will look for you, will be the journey we will sort out together.

I believe the greatest gift you can give to another is unconditional love and support, we are better together. Jessica xo

Hello, my name is Jessica, but most people call me Jess. I was born and raised in Edmonton Albert... Read More

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Hi folks, my name is Dana. I’m a musician and mother-of-two living here in Amiskwaciwaskahikan, having grown up further east on the land implicated in the signing of Treaty 6 (in Saskatchewan), and having spent several years living and playing music in Taiwan and the UK. Music is my life and my language, and has carried me on and through countless adventures and misadventures.

I believe that music is a wonderful way for people to be together. I share space, time, communication and care with others when I teach lessons, when I jam with other musicians, and when I perform my songs to public audiences. That’s how I look at it, and for me that’s what life is all about. I’d love to share some time and space with you in the same way.

Hi folks, my name is Dana. I’m a musician and mother-of-two living here in Amiskwaciwaskahikan, h... Read More