A promotional poster for the residency program titled "Once Upon A Time" at Sparrow Artspace, running from April 1 to 29, featuring a silhouette of a child holding strings attached to paper airplanes flying upward, with the names McKenna Prather and Yiting Hui, inviting people to join a creative journey through childhood memories with workshops.

Once Upon A Time

Yiting Hui and McKenna Prather

What was your favourite animal when you were a kiddo? Do you remember your favourite food, or a place you dreamt of? We invite you into our storybook residency, where Yiting Hui and McKenna Prather will explore illustrating childhood memories through multiple mediums.

Throughout April, various workshops will be offered: illustration, calligraphy, robot making, book-binding and more. We encourage kiddos and adults to come create, share stories and to access your whimsical side.

A woman with black hair, smiling, wearing a denim jacket outdoors with a blurred background of tree branches and brown leaves.

Yiting Hui

Yiting Hui, born in Hong Kong, now resides in Calgary. Yiting is an artist deeply inspired by both the majesty and the delicacy of nature, and a storyteller with a passion to reveal the magic of the beautiful ordinary. Her inspirations draw from the simplest things in life, nature and people around her. With the Japanese amine and Hong Kong comic influence, her works have whimsical qualities and illustrative style to them. Yiting strives to create works that awakens one’s imagination as a child.

Artwork of a woman's face with long flowing hair blending into water and underwater elements like seaweed and bubbles, in blue, black, and beige tones.
A woman with wavy brown hair, wearing a light pink shirt and matching pants, sitting on a wooden floor with a colorful mural of flowers, leaves, and small birds in the background.

McKenna Prather

McKenna is a freelance artist working out of a home studio in Calgary, accompanied by her Poodle and young family. Mckenna creates multimedia paintings using acrylic and embroidery on canvas. Her work is representational, often created in a collaged stye, with some elements painted realistically, some flat or patterned. Her work references textiles and her style is influenced by folk art and hand-made crafts such as quilting and needlepoint.