"Legend of the Forest"

Acrylic on Linen
Size     24  x 44 in.
 

             $2500

Artist’s Comments    (Artist’s Comments are intended solely for those viewers who would appreciate more information on the motivations and processes involved in each painting.  They are not intended to direct how anyone might respond to or interpret my work.)

Although I worked for many years with environmental concerns I often had difficulty incorporating the B.C. forest landscape, or suggestions of the West Coast Indian effectively into this theme.  This in spite of, or perhaps because of, my being born here!  But after living for a month on Queen Charlotte Islands and spending all of that time in close contact with the Haida I found that BC landscape became much less of a mystery. In this piece I have attempted to examine both the myth and the mystery of this area.

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For over 30 years much of my work has examined as a major theme the changing face of landscape, contrasting the timeless movement of natural forces such as erosion and seasonal changes to the changes made though man-made forces.  A year working in Australia, and living and studying with the Haida in the Queen Charlotte Islands emphasized the tremendous harm man has done to the environment and to aboriginal societies in the name of progress, and the need to heal that harm.

My images incorporate a multitude of views in one piece, unusual juxtapositions of images and ideas, often in ambiguous spatial relationships.  Sometimes a distant view will be offset with close up details of the land and foliage.