Website: carolschlosar@trubox.ca
Module 7–Culture in the Everyday Landscape- Kim Naqvi
Image 1 Dancing in the Long Shadows 18” X 24”, Acrylic on Canvas
Image 2 Detail Dancing in the Long Shadows
Image 3 The Incomplete Book of Sicamous Cultural Geography 6” X 90” Ink Jet on Paper
Image 4 Detail The Incomplete Book of Sicamous Cultural Geography
Dancing In the Long Shadows
This piece speaks to the cultural geography of my place and acknowledges those who came, those who left, and those who built a life for themselves and changed this space. Each has left long and inescapable shadows- good and bad- that we dance in daily.
The Incomplete Book of Sicamous Cultural Geography
They came, they stayed, and they changed the space. Exploring events that illuminate human movement into and out of Sicamous.
Module 5–Allying ourselves with plants rooted in place to mitigate the ongoing Anthropocene- Lyn Baldwin
Image 1 White Washed 20” X 20”, Acrylic on Canvas
Image 2 Detail White Washed
White Washed
If we are to reimagine a sustainable relationship with plants, we first and repentantly have to admit our blindness. This work speaks to imperialism and selective botanical history, where we’ve come to see only the value of cultivated and curated “Exotic” plants.
Arrowleaf balsamroot covers the hills of our region each spring. The flowers have cleansing properties and can be used to flour. The tubers and inner stem are edible. Medicinally an infusion of balsamroot was used for treatments of headaches, fevers and tuberculosis. This work speaks to the arrogance of dismissing this plant as a weed.
Image 1 - Numinous Spaces
Image 2 - Study - Labrinth in the snow
Module 4–Shaped by Story: Spirituality, Art and Place- Allison Rennie
Image 1 Numinous Spaces 24” X 36”, Acrylic on Canvas
Image 2 Study- Labyrinth in the Snow 16” X 16” Pastel and Acrylic on Canvas
Numinous Spaces
As Rudolph Otto described, the numinous presents itself as entirely different from anything we experience in ordinary life. As an overwhelming power yet at the same time as merciful and gracious.
At the nexus of sky, mountains, and lakes, the numinous exists as a sparkling “thin place” between heaven and earth. Shuswap Lake is my place, my space, for fleeting mystical moments and permanent transformations.
Study- Labyrinth in the Snow
Buried, under more than snow, you hold the weight of my many meditations.
Thankyou
Image 1 - In Motion #1
Image 2 - In Motion #1 detail
Image 3 - In Motion #2
Module 3– Artist Statement - The Flaneur as a Strategy for Making Art- Ila Crawford
Image 1 In Motion #1 - 12” X 36”, Acrylic on Canvas
Image 2 In Motion #1 (detail- figure and blind contours)
Image 3 In Motion #2 - 12” X 36”, Acrylic on Canvas
In Motion
While flâneur is often defined as a connoisseur of the street, a highly observant urban wanderer, that view was limited to men. Women, meanwhile, “flaneused” through their windows. For men and women though, “flaneurism” was and is a way of seeing and thinking with curiosity and abandon. So even if done through the window, it encourages the stories, the poetics, and the space of imagination.
These pieces are acts of observation by a window flâneur. The lyrical motion, as two children move through space, is marked with lines follow their defining, claiming and marking territory. I’m left to wonder about their lives and why she always walks ahead.
Image 1 - Poetics of My Space
Image 2 - Detail - house plans
Image 3 - topography map
Module 2– Artist Statement – Philosophy and Place
Image 1 Poetics of My Space, 36” X 36”, Acrylic on Canvas
Image 2 Poetics of My Space (detail- house plans)
Image 3 Poetics of My Space (detail- topography map)
The Poetics of My Space
This piece reflects my desire to “know my space to understand belonging”- part construction, part imagination.
Marks, the language of artists, serve as “placement”. The geometry of intersecting marks from different perspectives, defines the space I occupy with inclusions and exclusions of place and displacement. Curving marks of the topography of my mountains and valleys follow the gradient of the earth. Angular marks of the rigid blueprint of my house define my social space- inside and outside. The organic sweeping marks of the branches I see from my window lay on top of it all.
On that armature of constructed space, with its own certainty, safety and sanctuary, I’ve hung my colours in a place that shelters the imagining.
Image 1 After the Fires
Image 2 - CPOW Doodle Exercise
Image 3 - CPOW Writing Exercise
Image 4 - Blackout Poetry
Module 1– Artist Statement – Visual Art and the Contemplative Practice of Writin
Image 1 “After the Fires” , 36” X 36”, Acrylic on Canvas
Image 2: CPOW Doodle Exercise in preparation for painting
Image 3 CPOW Writing Exercise in preparation for painting
Image 4 Blackout poetry
“After the Fires” doesn’t strive to capture the complexity and intricacies of the forest fire that displaced us from our home, the right or wrong of forest management, or the undeniable disaster of climate change. “After the Fires” is about my sense of place in the landscape I move through and live in.
Trees make me think of home. Tied to tradition and ritual - Christmas trees, sitting in the shade of trees, the heavenly smell of trees- trees have burrowed their way into my “heart of longing.” In the fragility, loss, and threat to continuity, there was the frightening and impotent rush to hold the forest close and safe.
No expression of my sense of place would be complete without homage to my beloved trees. No expression would be complete without the sadness I feel when I see the burned out forest. No expression would be complete without the consolation of rebirth.
An explosion of hundreds of greens that ripple, dazzle and sing life is my response to the loss that sits just behind this cliff.
As a visual artist, writing in the form of artist statements, proposal, and reviews always came reluctantly and recalcitrantly at the end. K Jane Watts’ Contemplative Practice of Writing reversed the process to embrace language and free drawing as tools to spark new directions and understanding as the work evolved. This is where writing about art should start!
The CPOW elevated the playful- the perfect way to start a new piece and keep ideas fresh. The warmup of repetitive drawing relaxed and seduced me into exposing some unexpected directions in the free writing- thoughts I took into the work. The written word was more powerful than I imagined.
Thank you for sharing this artistic practice tool with us, Jane.