Taiessa (she/her) is a white settler and multi-discipline artist living in amiskwaciwâskahikan, also known as Edmonton. Her artistic practice explores themes of nurturance, longing, exchange, and (im)permanence. Conceptually driven while rooted in process, she works primarily in printmaking and soft sculpture. Taiessa obtained a Fine Art diploma with distinction from MacEwan University in 2018 before completing her BFA at the University of Alberta. Examining colonial extraction and speculating cautionary futures, Taiessa seeks to problematize our relationships to collection and exchange - instead proposing an understanding of care that divests from colonial power structures. In surveying the commercialization of plant collection, Taiessa was selected as the 2022/23 Artist in Residence at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre. The resulting body of work was shortlisted for the 2024 Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize, with additional exhibitions at The Art Gallery of St. Albert, Esker Foundation, and the Art Gallery of Alberta (upcoming). Taiessa is grateful for funding provided by the Edmonton Arts Council and Alberta Foundation for the Arts, her involvement in community organizing, and her experiences as Education Facilitator at The Works Art & Design Festival that further support and inform her work. Care and reflexivity motivate her artistic, administrative, and pedagogical practices within and beyond these engagements.