Giving Trees of Haida Gwaii

For eight weeks, from March till May 2012, the students of four classes (Miss Karrow, Miss Jung, Mr. Lagasse and Mr. Reid) were part of the Giving Trees of Haida Gwaii art project.

Sk’aadgaa Naay Elementary School is surrounded by forests and a trail that leads to old growth Cedar and Spruce trees and an eagle nest. This area formed the inspiration for the Giving Trees of Haida Gwaii project.

Each class was assigned a tree to work with for the period of the art project. Miss Karrow’s Kindergarten class worked with the Cedar tree, Miss Jung’s class learned about the Spruce tree, Mr. Lagasse’s class explored Hemlock and Mr. Reid’s class had Alder trees as their focus.

Students had the opportunity to learn about native uses and life cycles of the trees on a guided hike by Linda Tollas, Interpretation Officer at Parks Canada. They learned how the trees are part of an unbroken, interdependent circulation of water, air, plants and beings.

The students worked with Kiki to explore and express their connection to the earth, through individual painting exercises.

Each week they combined meditation, yoga and art to develop sensitivity to the natural world and access their creative source

Childs pose

The students were introduced to three-dimensional felt making by creating seeds out of raw wool fibres, wrapped around a rock. Then with warm soapy water and friction (rubbing), the wool shrinks and the fibres interlock, creating a solid fabric.

Watering the seeds

The next week students rolled wool into felted roots to be incorporated into their large felt mural. Here they are laying out the roving for the roots

Rolling the roots

The students created stories and sketches for their trees.

An important part of the art process is making design and composition choices.

After listening to the stories and looking at all the sketches, one main sketch per class was created as a guide for the large felt murals.

The students created ‘pre-felt’ details for the large felted murals. Pre-felt is a partial felted piece, that can easily be incorporated in larger felt pieces.

Wool laid out for Pre-felt

Then at last we created the large felted murals. Two to three students at a time would work with Kiki to lay out the wool, and create the design of the felt mural.

Working with pre-felt in the large mural

Then a group of students would help with the wetting and rubbing of the pieces.

We rolled the piece in a large bamboo curtain

We went into the janitors room to shrink the piece some more, squeezing and agitating in a large bucket.

Finally the water would be wrung out of the piece and it would be laid out flat to dry.

Felt Mural, ‘Young Cedar Tree in Spring’, by Kindergarten class, Miss Karrow

Felt mural, ‘Spruce Forest in Summer’, by Grade 1, Miss Jung

Felt mural, ‘Old Hemlock in Fall’, by Grade 4/5/6, Mr Lagasse

Felt Mural, Young and Old Alder in Winter, by Grade 6/7, Mr. Reid

For a wonderful video of this project, created by ArtStarts in Schools, please check: https://vimeo.com/73798246

This project was made possible with funding by:

Artstarts (BC Arts Council, Vancouver Foundation)

Opus Art Supplies

Haida Gwaii Arts Council

PAC

SNES

Studio time

For the first time in 18 months I was able to spend a block of time in the studio. 8 whole days! As the light was not sufficient for painting, I experimented with a few different felting techniques.

For a new grey bag, I started out laying out wool for wetfelting a new seamless bag:

Once the bag was felted and dried, I needlefelted locks on top to create a little sculptural touch:

And a locally made ceramic button:

This particular bag never made it to the local gallery. A visiting friend bought it before it even left the studio!

Spirit Lake Trail Art Project

Spirit Lake Trail in Skidegate has been turned into a public art space, with colourful banners and artworks suspended from trees, on top of bridges and posted in between roots, bark, moss and ferns.

More than 30 works were installed last Sunday and will continue to hang in the forest till after the weekend. The project is one of the events organised for the Sustainable Living Fair at the Haida Heritage Centre.
Enjoy your walk!

new creations

seamless bag with needlefelted sculptural details

wet felted shoulder bag

more seamless felted bags

sewn baskets

sock zebra

Slatechuck Hike

Since our move back to the island, we have been blessed with beautiful and stunning weather to welcome us back. We are enjoying many picnics in the garden and on the beach, walks through the forest, paddling back and forth in the canoe, and just being in our home. We have found many interesting blooming plants on the rocks of the beaches, but also in our garden. L. has been a great little helper. (see also: www.flickr.com/photos/atelierkiki)

Today T. had finally a day off and we headed up Slatechuck mountain, an hour and half steep uphill. L. was a trooper, he mostly hiked up on his own with a bit of encouragement here and there. Only on a few small sections T. had to put him up on his shoulders. There was one tricky section with a very steep ladder, but even that he did by himself.

I carried little S. in a comfortable seat up the mountain, he enjoyed every bit of it, squealing, kicking his legs, or just quietly taking in the view of the trees. At the top, the view was breathtaking, we could see our house shining in the sun. And L. and S. enjoyed some fruity snacks... The way down was a bit different. L. had spent all his energy for the way up, so T. had to carry him on his shoulders. L. did try now and again to walk, but his legs just didn't want to cooperate, he would lay down on the ground... But we are very impressed with his climb!

Change Islands

So this weekend it`s going to happen, we`re moving back to `our` island! L. has been asking about it for a long time. Everytime we visit the island house, he wants to spend the night, he doesn`t want to leave and definitely doesn`t want to go to the `Blue House`. I`m sure he`ll love it when we`re back on the island, though I have a feeling then he will request going to the `Blue House`. We`ll see. I`m sure we will all miss this Blue House, it has a lot of character (from 1929) and we have so many good memories!
Now our main mode of transportation will be the canoe again (see other post: visit to the island). I`ll be hauling the canoe and our groceries up and down the beach, carrying a 6 month old baby. Thankfully L walks by himself! Due to large tidal changes we sometimes have to walk quite a ways up or down the beach, through the mud, other times the tide is right up at the grass. When the tide is really low, we can walk to the `main island`. This is for sure the way to get back into shape quickly!