Traversal
A body of work birthed from the original painting, No Longer Dormant, created in 2020 as a part of the Seven Shifted group project featured in CreatedHere magazine, issue 14. Imagery for the work was taken from locations in both Mactaquac Provincial Park and the old growth forests of Odell Park, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Both areas lie on the unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq Peoples and contain a varied medley of eastern hemlock, red spruce, white pine, beech and sugar maple, intertwined by golden yellow birch.
The creation of these landscapes also came from a desire to relive that of traversing and crossing through them. In turn, I painted them, knowing that they, themselves would traverse thousands upon thousands of miles to be experienced in an environment ‘en dehors’ the ones they were originally inspired from. Through this body of work, I'm curious to explore common stereotypes behind idealized Canadian landscape and present day exoticism. What draws us most to landscapes we are unfamiliar with?
Traversal was recently showcased in Strasbourg, France at the 2023, 2ème édition, salon international art3f.