Strategic Sketch

01/30/2026

And that’s a wrap to this week’s Aski Mamohitowin/ Land Gathering! This was our first time trying out something a bit more interactive and artistic, I was so happy to see how receptive the community members were of the knowledge wall and our little tree! 🪾🍃

01/30/2026

♥️

Behind every year in review is an artist who helps bring the theme to life. For this year’s theme, “Seeding What’s Possible,” we collaborated with Samantha Mathews, a self-taught multimedia Omushkego artist based in Timmins, Ontario. Samantha lives on the traditional territory of the Omushkegowuk and Anishinaabeg peoples.

For the cover, Samantha reflected on the relationship between nature and communities without relying on familiar symbolism. Inspired by children’s books and whimsical imagery, she combined paper art, digital watercolours, and layered textures to create an illustration that invites curiosity, care, and possibility.

Dig into our year in review and the stories of care and collaboration that bring it to life: https://makeway.org/2025annualreport/

12/15/2025

Making sticker packs for an upcoming food sovereignty gathering in February-one more sticker to go!

12/15/2025

Wow, I feel so honoured to finally see the finished cover artwork I created for MakeWay Foundation’s annual report.
This project truly brought out the best in me creatively. I loved working with such thoughtful art direction, drawing inspiration from paper collage and layered watercolour-elements that always remind me of children’s book illustrations.
Miigwetch to MakeWay for the opportunity. So grateful to have been part of this one.🤍

MakeWay’s 2025 Year in Review is here, full of stories showcasing how seeds of hope, creativity, and collaboration can grow into positive change for nature and communities. 🌱

This year we celebrated Agguaq Collective, Reconnection Vision, We Always Remember, and Arctic Indigenous Fund joining the Shared Platform. We learned about and documented the value of collaborative funding models, and welcomed Alex Sardar, MakeWay’s new CEO. We also supported partners leading transformational work across the country: a landmark victory against environmental racism, Indigenous-led watershed security in BC, reclaiming narrative sovereignty in the North and so much more!

To the passionate community of partners, funders, and colleagues who make this work possible, thank you for being part of this journey.

Cover art by Strategic Sketch – Samantha Mathews, a self-taught multimedia Omushkego artist based in Timmins, Ontario.

🔗 As we come to the end of the year, we invite you to take a moment to reflect on 2025 and imagine what’s possible as we continue to work together in the year to come:

https://makeway.org/2025annualreport/

09/18/2025

I'm excited when I get the opportunity to hone my passion for graphic recording and seize every opportunity to elevate and expand my skills outside of my day job. This was a fun little project!

07/15/2025

Excited and honoured to be asked to create a logo for a brave group of walkers. I responded instantly and never worked so fast on something so fast. So happy to hear they liked the design! Thank you for trusting me to be a small part of this journey. ♥️

05/05/2025

To Book:
Email: [email protected]
Or DM via your preferred social media platform.

03/12/2025

It’s been a minute, and wow, it’s been busy and hectic. It’s important to visit the things you love often and make time for those things. I love graphic recording, I’m not so great at it in person because I need time to process things and want to make the best connection to symbols and imagery with people’s ideas but it’s something I want to keep practicing. I also don’t like people watching me 😅 lol I’m more comfortable with digital graphic recording and like the slower pace of projects. I’ll be taking on jobs again so if you’re in need of a digital graphic recorder, feel free to give me a shout.

09/30/2024

Thank you, , and to the youth who participated and contributed to the mural. A child’s drawing is so hard to reproduce when you’re older. I really love children’s book art so it adds so much value when it is the creativity of children and youth who draw. From this, I’ve learned to not have it so structured where you think you can control the outcome to be as neat and clean as possible. After buying two packs of pencil crayons, a box of crayons and pencils that ended up being $74 from the Northern store, I realized it was better for these artists to create on their own terms and whatever it is that they want. Large collaborative murals are tricky but I didn’t want this to look like I did all of the art work and had them paint or colour it in, to me, that wouldn’t be a successful workshop.

This digital mural made up of different mediums and artwork from the young people are a reflection of the youth here and their pieces are beautiful and was what they wanted to draw. I think it would be neat to explore collage art and I would probably connect with the schools to get more and as many youth involved. Digital mural is I think, a great way to capture everyone’s creativity. My biggest takeaway when we were discussing messaging about what the youth wanted to write, I had two little girls, Abby and Harley, write on their artwork ‘This place is beautiful’ and ‘ I love this place’ which really stood out to me because as adults, we always tend to frame things with a deficit lens but to a child, we don’t often acknowledge their perceptions of their communities and to read that without giving them a precise prompt of what to write, it was a “ah” moment. So again, thank you to the youth for that reminder and for your beautiful art.

09/27/2024

Arrived in Attawapiskat an hour or so ago and now settling in. Excited for tomorrow to be at the youth centre which myself and another workshop facilitator, Shibastik, drove by earlier with our warm and inviting hosts, which looks beautiful. It’s such an honour to be a part of the fun and meaningful work, I can’t wait. The schools will be closed to allow the youth of Attawapiskat to participate in fun workshops. Looking forward to creating with the youth! 😊

09/24/2024

Edit* I just realized I misunderstood the theme for the call out and may have mixed this one up with another one. ☹️

Sometimes it’s hard to ignore the urge to create because it’s something you really want to make. And sometimes you might regret staying up this late on a work night when you have an AGA to attend for the next two days but the deadline for this is on the 26th and it’s for a submission in a magazine so I was inspired by a different palette lately. I love the look of children’s book illustrations and try to aim for that especially for a call out like this. 6:30 am drive tomorrow, heading to bed. Hoping my two babies sleep through the night tonight. 😮‍💨

09/23/2024

Exciting announcement - I have been asked to collaborate with the Attawapiskat community, particularly the youth, on a mural project for the grand opening of their new youth centre. It is an honour to be part of this special occasion and contribute to the beauty of the space in this way. This is such a privilege to be able to contribute something artistic to my late mom’s community. I am looking forward to the end of the week!