'BANFF NOTES' |
March 2010 |
Week one - Entry One
The night before I set off to Canada I dreamt I was travelling in the back of an open pick-up truck. There was a low fog and I could just make out an endless, flat, barren horizon. The fog began to lift to reveal a seamless cream sky. Reigning over the landscape against the creamy backdrop were seven colossal graphite moons. *** Arriving into Calgary after sunset I embarked on my final journey by road to Banff. Everyone was tired, the bus was quiet, the lights were off. My mind instinctively awoke me from a doze to gaze out of the window with silent, heaving awe. The mountains coal black pierced the starry night sky whilst snow capped peaks whispered out of the darkness beneath the full moon. *** By morning the landscape majestically revealed itself. A ring of mountains blanketed by forests and scored by ice. My senses overwhelmed, three days in it still feels like a dream. |
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The Centre makes every effort to make all artists
at home, oriented and inspired. It really is the five star residency
and with every encounter you meet someone with a story to tell. Unlocking
my studio for the first time, it was like a microcosm that reflected
the outside world. A huge white space, a mountain peak peers over the
skylight.
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I unpacked my materials and scrapbook and made myself at home. The exhilaration of such an environment and the possibilities and secrets it holds can be accompanied by extreme emotions. Before feeling settled, being a creature of habit out of my familiar realm I lurched from intense, excitable highs to humble, anxious lows. This, though, is what I came for - the natural environment, the diverse mix of global creative practitioners and experiencing emotions and inspiration sometimes overlooked in day to day life. I have a tiny photograph of theatrical backdrop depicting a mountain scene. I picked it up on a flea market from a large anonymous box of photographs, cuttings and postcards. It has been following me around for a couple of years. I made my first mark in the studio and pinned it up on the wall beneath the skylight. |
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I travelled to Banff for a dramatic change in the scenery outside my
door. To experience nature in its wildest states, to move one step closer
to the animals I study for my drawings. The day to day experiences, a
far cry from home, will guide my work over the month and I feel what I
am witnessing and engaging with here will continue to inform my work far
into the future. Mixing and cross referencing reality with mythology with
experiences past, present and imagined all guide my work along its ongoing
journey. However, there was a start to my journey and it is guiding me
along this creative adventure. Before arriving here I could only imagine
through internet images what it might be like…..one of the elements
that excited me about the National Park was the presence of wolves. Not
only because of the worldwide reputation, mythologies and misconceptions
this creature throws up, but also I was listening to the echoes of our
own native wolves extinct by man’s hand by the late 1700s. On this
residency I am following the path, looking for a glimpse of the Wolf,
picking berries on the way.
*** The magpie was unafraid. I had stumbled across his path and he was standing his ground. Much larger than those back home with handsome iridescent tail feathers. He stared at me for a long time, hopping and chattering, occasionally with strange asthmatic breathing. I couldn’t tell whether he was trying to tell the greatest tale, or whether he was trying to scare me away. *** My first impression when walking back in the dark with a pack of artists was how true it felt to familiar folklore and fairy tales. We are strongly advised not to set out too far alone and always keep to the path. *** The Natural History Museum. Lovingly presented and preserved, many native beasts of this vast landmass are plucked, sucked in and remain frozen in time at this pin-prick focal point. Catching my eye, probably as an antidote to the magnitude of the surrounding mountains I focus in on a stuffed Calliope Hummingbird. Barely the size of my thumb, it is the tiniest bird in Canada, yet as the text panel describes, ‘is fiercely protective of its young - dive-bombing people, squirrels and other birds too close to the nest’. So straight back to the studio went I …. my mind full of Calliope Hummingbirds,… and began to scribble. |
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Above my head stood four grey wolves - one of them jet black with piercing yellow eyes. They strode over to the edge and stared straight into me. Atop the cabinet, above Coyote and Bison, even in this eternal frozen, lifeless state the Wolves still showed me how these beasts could get such a reputation as the great seducers and deceivers of folklore and fable. *** Through the trees, a long way off, I could see the phantom-like forms of pack members roaming in the shadows. They treated us to a howl. I came away feeling inspired, fulfilled and eager to get back to my drawings, endlessly going through images and narratives in my head. Tomorrow will be a very full day in the studio. |
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