 Visual arts are a wonderful way to communicate the things that we can't always and art as a communicator made sense to me Looking back now with working with children and nurturing that language. I can see that that's been the common thread throughout I remember having a discussion with my parents about like what are you going to do with this art degree? And I really didn't have an answer for them except for that I knew that this is what I was the most passionate about and the great thing about going to art school is that you're around these Self-starters and so you really have to be motivated to get if you want to get your work out there or your ideas out there You have to find a clever way to do so I'm Erin Bonafaro, and I run this store called collage collage collage collage is the best place in the world Because it's a place where art and storytelling and making can all come together So this space is a little bit bookstore. It's a little bit workshop. It's a little bit toy store It is an invitation to get creative We use a storybook and then that storybook acts as a catalyst for the class and then the children are led through some Promptors to make a picture based on that so it sounds really simple But the sweet thing is they really start to see themselves as makers and doers If you want to go out into the world and make this your profession You have to know what you're all about art school sort of makes it so you can carve out that place for you And that was a big part of it so there it was Emily Carr gave me that community to draw from Gave me the drive and gave me the language to put this whole thing together Being at school and using that highly conceptual language and you know now I make sock puppets like how did I get from one to the other? How far away they feel I Thought about that some more and they're actually not that far away at all And I really needed one to get to the other so I like that I have a store that has a book about Baldissari and Sparkly pom-poms because I think that the challenge of relating those two things Kind of speaks to what this place is all about This isn't just a hobby. This is really a career that I've built for myself, and I hope to see it continue to succeed