Blake Hobson-Dimas: Artistic Director

My name is Blake Hobson-Dimas (He / Him). I am a Mexican-Canadian visual and performance artist based in so-called Vancouver, Canada. I began knitting and crocheting over fifteen years ago. Primarily, I make costumes for characters I design, which are meant to be performed in. I also work as a visual artist, and began my practice of making “little friends” in 2022 after learning about a local legend from Mochitlan, the mountain village in Mexico where my mother was born.

 I began my training in the performing arts with over a decade of script analysis and classical training. After graduating from Douglas College in 2017 with a diploma in performing arts, I studied Pochinko clown under David MacMurray-Smith. Following that I obtained my BFA in performance art from The School of Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in 2023. 

My philosophy for performance and creation is centered around self discovery and reflection. I relate to the costumes I perform in through the lens of clown. The costumes I create are a representation of my experience that I want to bring to life and potentially embody. For installations of my work, the textural experience becomes very specific. The unified existence of individual stitches tells a linear story that underlines the overall narrative of the piece. Not only can one appreciate the spectacle as a whole, but when they are allowed to touch my work and be personal with it, they begin to understand the choreography of movement that is encoded within the yarn.

Zella, Baby!: Lead Designer / Fibre Artist

Zella, Baby! is a visual artist and designer who transforms fibre into storytelling. With a focus on crochet and wearable textiles, their work blends ancestral memory with contemporary identity, creating pieces that are as intimate as they are theatrical. Rooted in their mixed Mexican and Canadian Heritage, Zella, Baby!’s practice explores the emotional terrain of diaspora—how culture, queerness, and community live in the body and resurface through touch, repetition, and craft.

Their garments are living artifacts. Often drawing from flowers, folkloric symbols, and personal mythology, Zella, Baby! believes in the power of softness as resistance. Through fibre, they reimagine what it means to belong. A recurring theme in Zella, Baby!’s work is the tension of belonging. They often feel friction between their Mexican and Canadian identities. Zella, Baby! uses fibre as a quiet, deliberate method of navigating that complexity. Each stitch is a gesture of discovery.

Zella, Baby!’s wearable art appears in movement-based performance, character studies, and immersive installations. They are particularly interested in how textile can be used to shift perception and become a vessel for healing and connection.

With a background in theatre and clown, Zella, Baby! brings a sense of play, vulnerability, and transformation to every project. They see fibre as a way to honour the past while shaping the future—one loop, stitch, and story at a time.

Frannie Warwick: Founding Member / Assistant Producer

Frances Warwick (She / Her) is a Montreal-based artist and performer, a graduate of Douglas College with training in clown and absurdist theatre. Frances is a rover in life and art, spending as much time seeing the world and engaging with global creative communities as possible, thankful for every opportunity to develop creative spaces alongside dedicated communities of artists.