Cheri Wilson’s hands are in constant motion, covered in clay, as she sculpts, pounds and shapes the material. Wearing a black apron, the 67-year-old makes a bowl to add to the more than 100 pieces she’s created since she took up pottery two years ago. Her collection rests on the table in front of her, undergoing inventory for something she’s excited about: a show at Dawson’s ODD Gallery in the next year or two.
Many of Wilson’s sculptures are babies that fit in the palm of a hand. They’re grey in colour, quirky and fascinating, in different shapes and poses. Some feature one of Wilson’s fingerprints, immortalized by the firing process. “It’s just so cool because Cheri’s blind, but her work is seemingly referencing ancient figurative pottery,” says Phoebe Gonzales Rohrbacher, the art studio co-ordinator at Teegatha’Oh Zheh in downtown Whitehorse. “It’s like she’s tapping into the human drive to make figures out of clay.”
Teegatha’Oh Zheh is a non-profit organization that has supported people with developmental disabilities in the Yukon for more than 30 years. In Gwich’in, its name means “to return home by the path on which you left.” Gonzales Rohrbacher started working there in 2023. As an artist, she wanted to open a studio for Teegatha’Oh Zheh’s clients and she knew of a broader North American movement of progressive art studios, which support artists with disabilities. Since art is a form of expression and communication, especially for people who are non-verbal, an opportunity for a self-led practice can offer more autonomy. So, she scrounged up whatever she could find in the building—coloured pencils, paint brushes, paint pens, glue, paper—and then, she says, “There was just such an explosion of art.”
Soon, there wasn’t room to store it all. Fortunately, the non-profit has since moved into the old Northwestel building, which has a large, bright studio with plenty of storage and room to work. Colourful portraits by Ernest Chua hang on one wall, while in-progress pieces, oil pens, pencil crayons and markers sit on long tables. Aimee Lien draws in her sketchbook, then shows off some of her illustrations: colourful circles that illustrate coffee-shop drinks, with creative flavours such as unicorn mocha (pastel pink, periwinkle, teal) and peppermint iced capp (cactus-green with black flecks). Some of her favourite pop-culture references appear in her pieces: Harry Potter, the band Love and a .38, 101 Dalmatians. Meanwhile, Rachel Dawson uses a blue marker to add to one of her illustrations, and Christian Kempis colours in an expansive soccer field on a wood panel with a green pencil crayon. A staff member strums “Harvest Moon” on the guitar.
Teegatha’Oh Zheh has arranged for artists who don’t have disabilities to hold workshops and set up opportunities for its clients to work alongside other artists. Key to the progressive studio movement is not framing the support as charity—instead, it’s that “the artists with disabilities are giving so much to the community,” says Gonzales Rohrbacher, “and really expanding the idea of what art can be and what art-making looks like.”
One of the studio’s goals is elevating artists’ work. Recently, Wilson learned that she’d been selected for the ODD Gallery show, and the non-profit posted a congratulatory message, along with a photo of her babies, on Instagram. “I think a lot of times, people can infantilize or not take seriously people with disabilities and their artwork,” Gonzales Rohrbacher says. Teegatha’Oh Zheh is trying to change that by bringing its clients onto equal footing as artists. “Because their work is so good. Everybody in here is making such interesting work that’s so different from anything else that’s being produced in the Yukon.”
