Listen to the Land
2021
Earlier this year, I developed the work titled “History of Here” and “Terra”. Their intent was to examine the small changes that happen over time, focusing was on the natural elements that alter and transform the landscape. “Terra” centred around the layers of the earth and sedimentary rock found on the surface, and “History of Here” around the dense layers of invisible movements that fill each place on Earth. It is my intention to read the landscape like a book, investigating its past by the clues left behind.
Following these series, I continued to explore and try to understand the history of the land that we inhabit.
This Summer, I could not help but notice that the changes on the Earth were happening fast. Really fast. My summer began with excess heat warnings around the Pacific Northwest when hot ocean air was trapped under a high-pressure layer of atmosphere for weeks, coined as a heat dome. Before my eyes, the land was literally burning up, rivers were flooding from glacier melt, and lake levels were drying up. I listened as the land screamed out for help. And all around me records were being broken: temperature highs, wildfires, low lake levels, rising rivers. Ultimately these environmental changes were effecting peoples’ lives. I began hearing many firsthand stories of evaluation, ruined farmer’s crops, destroyed towns, and news stories of death.
While creating this body of work, which I titled “Listen to the Land’, I observed the effects of climate change on the earth. In Kenora Ontario, I experienced the lowest the lake has ever been, and in Whistler British Columbia, I witnessed the most bare the summit has ever been. I made notes of the water level marks left on the shores and the evidence of dried up snow on mountain peaks. While flying over the Okanagan and the Rockies, I traced the smoke through the window.
While creating these works, my process evolved to incorporate a variety of rough coloured patches and ghostly organic washes, suggesting watermarks or map contours. It was important for me to leave negative space for the patches of colour to exist within. Emphasis was placed on gesture and movement within the canvas, reflective one expressive moment leading to the next. I balanced acute motion with calming natural colour. I referenced tones that felt familiar as though grown on the shores and mountain peaks.
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I will be donating a portion of proceeds from the sale of these “Listen to the Land” painting to help an environmental charity thru CanadaHelps.org