Nelson ArtWalk 2020
Thanks to both the Boxing Club and the Dominion Cafe, for featuring me as their Nelson ArtWalk 2020 artist for this year's virtual version of the annual event. This online exhibition features a selection of smaller works produced alongside and in the development of my MFA thesis exhibition Still, they are speaking. All works seen here are available for sale by contacting me directly via the Contact page. See more of the Nelson Artwalk Artists on their website Artist Statement In 2003 the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire spread across more than 250 square kilometres and consumed 239 homes on the edge of Kelowna. In land still scarred by that fire, blackened trunks dominate the skyline with a now-familiar stubble, while up close thriving ecosystems regenerate and continue despite encroaching urbanisation. Walking these hillsides, the stark beauty, richness of surface and visible traces of loss and regeneration found there, fascinate me. The thick fire-resistant bark of the Ponderosa Pine in particular, carries the marks of that past fire as charcoal that has become part of the living tree’s story, written in its skin. These marks speak of complexity and fragility, of sacrifice, resilience and renewal. My drawing practice demands a haptic engagement with materials and a physical immersion in place. In making these drawings a collaborative contact of surfaces transfers charcoal marks from tree to paper, to become a record of conversations that have taken place between fire and land, footstep and ground, body and tree. Drawing as an act of engagement with place, is translated into new encounters with drawing as object, framed or mounted on wooden panels. Repetitive and cyclical processes, including etching, hand-cutting and collage contribute to the development of complex, active surface. All works on paper, the inherent fragility of this natural material grounds the work in the temporality and physicality of the here and now. |
|