Elkdonis Arts Collective
Quote from inpresence.org
About Elkdonis artists Collective
A Mutual Aid Society
Elkdonis Arts is a community organization dedicated to promoting and practicing various art methodologies, several forms of education, and cultural exchange for public benefit. We provide accessible educational programs, workshops, lectures, and learning opportunities across diverse disciplines, including visual arts, theatre, philosophy, literature and cultural studies. We support artists, educators, thinkers, and creatives by offering opportunities to present, develop, and share artistic and intellectual work. We aim to engage and support emerging creatives through mentorship and community-based learning. Towards this end, we collaborate with individuals and organizations locally, nationally, and internationally in furtherance of these purposes.
Our original group was first formed in Newmarket Ontario, Canada, 1990. We opened the first internet cafe in town, and held concerts and raves, as well as other performative, theatrical and literary events. Our group has undergone many radical transformations since. We helped usher in digital community and new digital group work to the internet, and that involved many experiments attempting to adapt ever changing web and mobile apps to our work over the years. Remaining true to the essence of our celebrated “philosophical reading groups”, often spontaneously hosted, this collective is quintessentially nomadic, eclectic, reflexive and dedicated to seeking knowledge. Our current international collaborations are focused in Paris, Los Angeles and Toronto, where our founding members are respectively situated and engaged in a wide variety of creative acts & inquiries.
The Collective is presently committed to three major programs:
- Creativity & The Creative Act as the medium to inquire into our shared human existence.
- Providing a Sanctuary where beauty and inquiry can meet.
- Providing Education & Community Networking. We hope to cultivate these by providing demonstrations, workshops, and interactive events which welcome access to our creative process as it happens.
Current Offerings – Spring 2026
In collaboration with the founders, we are currently developing several short term and recurring workshops & events – offered both locally and online – which focus on interactive & reflexive, group oriented processes. Our aim is to cultivate a community foundation which is destined for permanent event spaces, including an open concept library, gallery and residency program. A sample of our offerings ‘soon-to-become’ : creative writing salons featuring surrealist -inspired automatism, invocational”paratheater” laboratories which explore experimental performance and ritual presence, contemplative and ecstatic musical events, as well as lectures and seminars on curated works and subjects of interest, ranging from the sacred to the profane.
We are visionary, provocative and shamanic; we skirt the borders of reality and its subtle interfaces. We create spaces for artwork with an unmistakable transcendent quality. Our performances expand consciousness, and attune the senses. For instance, our assemblage sculptures (featured) range through a broad spectrum and can be both brilliant and subtle while remaining reflective of the shared space — they are pieces of the land itself.
Investing in Artists & Innovators: The Elkdonis Grant Program
As a not for profit organization, one of our most treasured aims is not only to cultivate a strong network, but moreover to actively contribute to and build a “creative economy” which can assist in removing barriers that stand between human beings – the creative act – and their integrated potential. That is exactly what the Elkdonis Grant Program is designed to do.
As part of our mission, Elkdonis Arts will function as an active grant provider — offering direct funding to emerging artists, educators, thinkers and innovators who demonstrate vision, cultural impact, and community commitment. We believe that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Our grants exist to close that gap.
Grant recipients will receive not only financial support, but access to our physical spaces, our network of seasoned mentors, and the platform to present their work to real audiences. We aspire to usher in a new generation of seekers by opening doors and standing behind the people who walk through them.
From visual artists and musicians to educators developing new curricula and community innovators solving local challenges — if your work uplifts people and advances culture, Elkdonis wants to invest in you.
Sign up for our Newsletter to be informed when our events, residency and funding programs launch – Or follow us on substack & other social media platforms. Alternatively, prospective grantees are welcomed to make inquiries and proposals.
What is Art For?
The artist endeavours to penetrate experience in order to know the self and the world. It is a neverending process to find ways of using a medium to interpret something seen and experienced in form, to be percieved. To persevere in this process despite frustration and failure requires commitment and work, driven in large part by human necessity. We work to restore the necessity of art in life for all. We are interested in the creative process as a method of invocation and inquiry.
Our Ethos : Our approach is built around three core principles:
I Essentialism
Our work centers on the soulfulness of presence—what emerges when form is stripped to its most honest state. We use recognisable objects not as literal representations, but as vessels for emotional resonance and existential clarity. In this practice, essence is not merely what is left behind after reduction, but the depth of being that reveals itself when distraction is removed. We pursue the objectivity of presence: the way a shape, line, or colour exists in its own truth. Objects are distilled to their core not for abstraction’s sake, but to amplify this quality of being. Each element carries weight not because of what it depicts, but because of how it inhabits the space. This is a form of reduction rooted not in minimalism alone, but in reverence.The result is an invitation: to pause, to witness, and to encounter the quiet soulfulness that resides in what is essential.
II Timelessness
Our art invites viewers to experience the eternal present. In doing so, we unlock new dimensions of perception and connection. Reductionism typically explores another dimension of time, a dimension which is not sequential or “horizontal” but rather — eternal — or “vertical”. This verticality is the same dimension which contains the creative act itself. Nothing is happening in the usual sense, and therefore time does not pass. The result is an enhanced awareness of posture, positioning of visual elements and their inter-relationships. Freezing the frame, rendering objects static, also has the effect of freeing other forms of awareness, such as feeling (motion through emotion).
III Spaciousness
We prioritize the viewer’s experience, crafting scenes that envelop and engage. Our art establishes a sense of spaciousness that transcends physical boundaries, drawing the viewer into a profound relationship with the work. As the artist strives for communication, scenes are composed for a viewer who is not a voyeur outside the scene but rather a participant who is the reason for the work and necessarily a part of it. Everything in the scene is oriented first and foremost to the viewer, so as to bring the viewer into a relationship with it. Therefore, depth of field is not bounded by the frame: it includes the viewer in a true experience of space. Thus, the art is only completed by viewing. This sense of space is not something filled or measured, but felt—an open stillness that invites presence. The space in the work becomes shared space—between object and observer, stillness and awareness, inside and outside. In this way, the act of viewing is not passive, but collaborative, where meaning unfolds not in the object alone, but in the open field between the viewer and what is seen.
The Creative Act as a means of Inquiry.
Each inquiry focuses on a particular question that is grounded in what it is to be human. Resonant works and spaces are included in the inquiry. New works are often created in public spaces in response to the proposed inquiry.
The artist holds the inquiry in their head heart and body until the force they have put themselves under affects them inwardly . Outwardly this produces a gesture . The gesture produces an artifact.
The artifact thusly produced is completed by the viewer, who will be moved into the same emotional experience as the artist during the inquiry. This is an objective communication. This process has been called an act of revelation by some. Our group supports artists of all arts in attempts at working objectively.
Placement and the relationships between pieces creates an experience for the viewer to participate in. This is how this show evolves! A willingness to be part of such a collaboration is essential to the participants but work must also be compatible with the exploration that is in process.
“A Seeker is One who is always Seeking…” states the adage; We continue in this spirit through a commitment to witnessing & experiencing the creative act. As artists and seekers, we are called to craft these gestures with intention and awareness, allowing them to become conduits for the timeless , sometimes ineffable truth that lies beyond the reach of ordinary consciousness.
We are unique in our purpose and are not commercial. Our works are intended to be experienced, not sold. Witnessing the collected documentation of the works undertaken in public is a further process of discovery for anyone who may wish to hold space for this.
If you are interested in volunteering or joining the collective , please send us an email: info@elkdonis-arts.org.
We consider online spaces to be real sacred spaces held in the minds hearts and bodies of the members.
Our name — Elkdonis — comes from a word found in an allegorical literary work written by the mystic G.I. Gurdjieff in the 20th century called ‘Beelzebubs Tales to His Grandson’. It is derived from the ancient Greek “helkdonis”, meaning:
” Objective prayer for the Absolute”.
Welcome.
“While working together in an asocial climate, a unique group unity unfolds from each person’s heightened commitment to their own internal sources while sharing that Presence with others and being acted on by the Presence of others”
-Antero Alli-
“To cultivate resonance with vertical sources is not easy. This kind of inner work persists as an uphill struggle against the grain of decades of horizontal, socially-conditioned, externally-directed habit patterns. Accessing our verticality can act as an irritant to anyone identified exclusively with the horizontal plane of existence. The shock of authentic vertical contact, no matter how fleeting, can shatter unchecked assumptions about the world around us and who we think we are. Any real intimacy with Void can stir deep questioning about identity and the nature of reality.“
-Antero Alli-
Biographies & More
Founder,
Director of Operations
Jason
Artist , Acupuncturist/ medical Qi gong practitioner, Jason Ford has been leading conscious creatives groups, Corporate and church team building safaris and leadership skills training labs since 1990.
Jason has been trained in traditional healing and initiations, fourth way practices, visual arts, sculpture arts, performance arts, and paratheatre.
He is currently retired from the Foundation for the Study of Objective Art, where he worked in their Galleries Arcturus and City Art.
Director of I.T. and Security
Steph
From an early age, Steph felt a sense that something was missing. What he now recognizes as a deep longing for the divine. In his teens, he explored cannabis and psychedelics, which opened him up to different possibilities and states of consciousness.
Around 20, he discovered Carlos Castaneda’s books and wanted to explore shamanism. However, due to his aphantasia, he shifted focus to Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way teachings. Over the years, he has also studied a variety of other traditions including Tantra, Taoist inner alchemy, and Zen. Recently, he’s been focusing more on Kundalini Yoga and subtle energies.
Now, Steph is moving into helping others come to the teachings and practice. With a focus on Kundalini and a bit of basic Inner Alchemy Qigong. He is also offering a Fourth Way group reading of Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson.
Co-Founder, Editorial Manager
Artist/Writer in Residence
Dana
I’m an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and writer whose work opens gateways into the inner and higher dimensions of the Self. Through symbolism and harmonious use of colour, I explore themes of presence, perception, and the human condition, aiming to capture the eternal moment in visual and poetic form.
My creative practice is deeply informed by experiential research in energy medicine, meditation, trance mediumship, parapsychology, and both Eastern and Western esoteric traditions. I’m particularly inspired by the legacy work of G.I. Gurdjieff and the possibilities of inner transformation through creative inquiry. At the moment, I am especially interested in folk art and craft movements and related traditions
A graduate of OCAD University, I also bring a background in religious studies and social sciences to my work. This interdisciplinary approach helps me integrate the intuitive with the intellectual—bridging the seen and unseen in ways that invite reflection, connection, and a sense of wonder.
Projects Manager,
Director of Web Development
Guru Dharam
Guru Dharam Singh is the name given to me by my teacher, along with the challange to actually use it. During my second year at U of T I met my teacher the Sikh Chaplain there and attended his Kundalini Yoga Classes.
From an early age I felt witnessed by a Sacred or Divine force, and with subsequent exposure to Western Astrology, and then Yung Drung Bon, I came to realize that I wasnt “crazy” for feeling seen.
I’m looking forward to applying organizational skill and consistency to expand the access to this teaching and other practices, particular in the manner of the fourth way.
Executive Music and Video Producer/Director,
Artist/Writer in Residence
Aeon
From early on, there has always been this sense that there is a certain kind of information behind normal everyday perceptions – from the firmly imposed boundaries around what the education system discusses to what a human being even is.
The mission then became clear – to follow the threads of experience until valuable insights are uncovered.
Conscience, self-honesty, and curiosity led the way to the depths of the poetic and musical states which uncover the underbelly of human experience… In tandem to the artistic endeavors, there was a calling toward deeper spiritual work, something that peers through the human condition and confronts the soul without compromise. After years of self-study, I became introduced to some of the members of the Elkdonis Arts Collective and joined forces.
Director of Public Relations
Sarah
I was involved in the 90s indie punk scene in Toronto and then spent fourteen years working in shelters and drop-in centres in Toronto and the surrounding area. Writing has appeared in Exclaim!, IASPM Automusicologies, and Bunch Family.
I am comfortable interacting with people from all walks of life. I have taken college-level courses in public relations, marketing, advertising, copywriting and SEO. I also work as a supply Educational Assistant and Administrative Assistant for the Waterloo Catholic and Public School Boards.
I hold a BA in social and developmental psychology and an additional BA in Fine Arts Cultural Studies. I worked in frontline social services and then, during the pandemic, I became a music reviewer for Exclaim! This led me to my current role as an organizing member of the new online music journal New Feeling. My main role in New Feeling is as a member of the editorial committee where I generate and review pitches and provide both structural and copy edits. We partner with The Grind to provide their music coverage as well. Since New Feeling is a small collective, I also participate in events and membership drives to broaden our organization’s reach and scope.
One connecting thread between all the different types of work that I have done is that community is at the forefront. I am honoured and excited to be involved in building a community where we all achieve spiritual development. Working in creative and social justice pursuits will intertwine with this journey.
l
Elkdonis Arts Collective operates as a private membership association. Using this website means you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policies. the material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Elkdonis Arts Collective.
© 2019-2025 Elkdonis Arts Collective. All rights reserved.