This project is generously funded by the First Peoples Cultural Council.
Here you can see a prototype piece that I created. I created this to showcase my live edge concept. The wood spoke to me, suggesting that I create something rising from the bottom, something bright and light like the wood. I decided on a sunrise and went to drawing a sun within an outline of the live edge wood piece. This old piece of wood grew for years in our forests. Every year surviving to make another ring, Everyday using the sun to grow bigger. How many sunrises had it seen before it found its way to me? All the rings and character inside of it waiting to shine. I love working with live edge wood in a similar way to how my ancestors used it.
I plan to replicate this process using larger pieces of live-edge wood. I hope to find pieces of sustainably and responsibly sourced local wood. I am looking forward to working with Gary Oak, Cedar, Yew wood and other indigenous species. I plan to incorporate all my art skills into this project including, acrylic painting, acrylic pouring, knitting, weaving and carving. Even though I don’t expect to use all of my skills to create my final pieces I truly am looking forward to focusing on doing some basic artistic creating.
UPDATE: Live edge wood paintings – Arts alive 2023 Oakbay, Victoria
Andrea was lucky enough to be accepted into the Arts Alive 2023 show in Oakbay, BC. This exhibit lasted one year and showcased several outdoor sculptures from various artists. Andrea’s ‘Natural Connections’ piece was included in this show and featured four live edge wood paintings. Each of the four paintings depicted a different wood based eco-system including: Garry Oak, Pacific Yew, Douglas Fir, and Maple. The art was erected on a wooden base to make them appear like one large tree representing our shared ecosystems.
The medium of acrylic on live edge wood was new to Andrea and she truly enjoyed creating using it. She would not of been able to follow this opportunity of creating using live-edge local wood without the financial support of the First People’s Cultural Council. Huychq’u to them for the artist grant funding. The final pieces are being restored and resealed after a year in the elements. A final display location is being selected for these pieces.
Huy tseepq’u for following along with this project.