Tied together like a knot

Taanishi/Welcome,

You have entered the virtual home of Professor Sheri Osden Nault’s research-creation project, Tied together like a knot: ecologically responsive innovation in creative praxis. This work centres Indigenous-led conservation research and addresses the need for attentiveness to the social dimensions of climate events.

Tied together mobilizes community and land-based research and fosters networking among artist-researchers through the development of ecologically and socially responsible methods of art production and presentation. Métis kitchen-table methodologies guide this research, promoting the collaborative co-generation of knowledge through emphasizing peer-to-peer learning and relationship building. Tied together takes its title from the Michif (the Métis language) word for ancestor, which can be directly translated to mean ‘tied together like a knot.’

This research is supported by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

The Sustaining Praxis blog documents Tied Together’s research processes and results to nurture an open network of sustainable artistic praxis. We invite fellow artist-researchers to learn from what is shared here and to adapt our recipes and methods through your own practices and then share the outcomes with us and your communities. Before sharing our first post, please allow us to introduce Professor Nault and the members of their research team:

Professor Sheri Osden Nault

Sheri Osden Nault is a Two-Spirit Métis artist, community worker, and Assistant Professor in Studio Arts at the University of Western Ontario. Their work spans mediums including sculpture, video, and more; integrating land-responsive, social, and cultural creative processes. They explore embodied connections between human and non-human beings, and relational responsibilities as artistic frameworks, prioritizing learning from more-than-human kin. Their research engages decolonizing methodologies, queer theory, ecological theory, and intersectional and Indigenous feminisms. They are a tattooer, researcher, and organizer within the Indigenous tattoo revival movement in so-called Canada and they run the annual community project, Gifts for Two-Spirit Youth.

Nault currently lives and works in London, Ontario - on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lunaapéwak, and Chonnonton Nations. They are Métis of the Charette, Bélanger, and Nault families.

Research Assistants

Imogen Clendinning

Imogen Clendinning is a settler media artist and scholar who resides in the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Attawandaron (or so-called London, Ontario). In their research, Clendinning develops DIY solar-powered web servers to hold digital archives and Internet Art. Her writing has been published by BlackFlash, Off Centre and tba Journal of Art, Media and Visual Culture. Clendinning is currently pursuing a PhD in Art and Visual Culture, Western University, with a focus on critical infrastructure studies and sustainable practices in digital archiving. They are also a proud member of the Centre for Sustainable Curating led by Dr. Kirsty Robertson and the Slow Internet artist project, founded by Carrie Hott.

Jessica Irene Joyce

Jessica Irene Joyce is an artist in a long-term relationship with painting. She paints to document relationships to self, materials, and ecologies, and how these are transformed by reading about and living through climate change. Created with salvaged, repurposed, and experimental materials, her paintings suggest a gentle path to reciprocity between artist and environment.

Jessica holds a BFA in Studio Arts with a specialization in Painting from Concordia University. In 2022, Jessica moved to London, Ontario to pursue an MFA research project on climate anxiety, which culminated in an exhibition titled, How can I be OK with the e/and of the world? at Western University’s artLAB gallery. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Art and Visual Culture at Western University under the supervision of Professor Nault. She is grateful to the Deshkan Ziibi and the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, and Lūnaapéewak for the nourishment and lessons they offer.

Jessica’s paintings have been exhibited in Montreal, St. John’s, and throughout Southwestern Ontario. Her writing has been published by Forest City Gallery, Embassy Cultural House, and the Tom Thomson Art Gallery. She is the social media editor for Embassy Cultural House and an active participant of the Centre for Sustainable Curating.

Currently reading:

Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Currently watching:

a “Hacks” rewatch inspired by the recent series finale

Currently listening:

Metric’s newest album, Romanticize the Dive

Interspecies kin (pets):

One very vocal tortoiseshell cat named Luna who bosses me around every day.

Danielle Petti

I am a PhD candidate in Art and Visual Culture at Western University, where I also work as a research assistant for Professor Sheri Osden Nault. In this role, I apply my expertise in material experimentation across a range of alternative material recipes. I hold an MFA from Western University (2025) and a BFA in Photography from Toronto Metropolitan University (2012). Based in both Waterloo and London, Ontario, my work often engages with site specificity and local ecosystems, weaving together themes of material agency, geological time, and care. My practice challenges anthropocentric views, aiming to position myself as a participant in broader ecological and temporal processes. Bridging together scientific, domestic, and environmental narratives, my work draws on cross-disciplinary experience in photography, painting, sculpture, several crafts, and folk arts.

I have received awards from Canada Council for the Arts and Region of Waterloo Arts Fund and have exhibited internationally. I aim to create responsibly by sourcing discarded material and by foraging earth both globally and locally; on the traditional territories of Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Attawandaron.

Currently reading/watching/playing/listening/writing:

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Interspecies kin (pets):

I have a very fluffy Finnish Lapphund named Tiko

Family life:

I live in Waterloo with my partner and two pretty cool school aged human beings

Favourite season:

Spring – I don't like how cold it can be sometimes in the spring, but I always feel my energy and inspiration rising.

Favourite medium/material/artistic process:

Finding and processing richly pigmented earth

Dinner party fact/ “did you know”

I worked as a family photographer for 10 years before going to grad school.