Standing Dead Still

Standing Dead Still
Aura Russell
Sowchea Elementary School, Grade 6
Watercolour
Ft St James
2007

Firewood

Firewood
Judith DesBrisay
Acrylic on canvas
Quesnel
2003

My partner and I live at a wilderness meadow with mixed forest surround in British Columbia’s Central Interior region. Our home was constructed using logs from this natural resource. Seasonally we have selectively harvest trees from the forest to split and stack in readiness for use as firewood: to stave off the winter’s lessening chill. The once living forest is now a mixed palette of red pine skeletons whose stark remains may well provide fuel for an unprecedented blaze. I wonder if recollections of the forest and all the birds, insects, mammals that once inhabited its living presence are imbedded in the firewood. Will these memories be released in the flames of our hearth-fire/the landscape/human memory or will they smolder among the dying embers?

New Beginnings- A study at Dawn

New Beginnings- A study at Dawn
Marion Mills
Oil
Vanderhoof
2007


The Beetles have hit our forests hard as shown in the background of this painting and even the trees in the park area are dead. The old tree fort, my children built years ago, depict the happiness and innocence of another healthier time. I love the play of light at dawn and dawn itself radiates hope for a better day. Always the optimist, I see new pine trees regenerating everywhere and I wanted to communicate this.
Barry made the frame out of bug-wood.

Bark beetle 78

Bark beetle drawing #78
Annerose Georgeson
Photocopy transfer, ink
Vanderhoof
2002

These drawings were part of a series I did called Secret Language, where I compared the shapes in nature to the shapes of script.

Fibonacci Sequence

Fibonacci Sequence
Sybille Muschik
Mixed media on canvas
Quesnel
2006


We do a lot of camping and hiking throughout the Cariboo/Chilcotin area. In all our favorite places we see endless stands of dead burgundy pine trees which touch me with their fiery beauty and leave me with an impending dread as to the eventual impact not only on the economy of the region but to the land and the waterways.

As a painter, I find it necessary to document and comment on these drastic changes. Several years ago I began the Guardian Series to remind viewers that we must be the guardians and not just the developers of our natural resources.

In my painting The Fibonacci Sequences I begin with the underlying mathematical sequences that inform the structure of pine cones, their spiral patterns hold the ancient secrets rediscovered by Renaissance mathematician Leonardo of Pisa also known as Fibonacci who studied these patterns as mathematical sequences. These patterns inform the way the limbs grow from the core and even the texture of the bark; how a tiny seed released from them can create species like pines. He discovered that nature endlessly weaves these formulas into this elegant expression. Artists and architects then and now often design work based on these principles.

One of my prized possessions is a little wooden abstract sculpture carved and given to me by my son. One day while looking at the trees in my winter garden, I happened to notice my sculpture in the window guarding the sleeping scene which reminded me of the Madonnas illuminated in Gothic cathedrals. This started me on the Guardian series. The statue with its spiral whorls and patterns exemplifies not only the wood’s myriad functional uses, but its beauty.

Now that we are in the midst of the pine beetle infestation, the thought of pines threatened in the overwhelming spiral of global changes, makes these trees more precious to me than ever. In the painting I indicate pines may only be preserved as amber remnants that may be blue from the bacteria spread by the pine beetle, but it is my fervent hope they will prevail just as they have survived countless challenges for millions of years.

Rebirth

Rebirth
Susan Barton-Tait
cast handmade paper, pine beetle sawdust, wood pulp
Pr George
2007


The death of the pine forest due to the proliferation of the mountain pine beetle has produced a profound change throughout the interior of British Columbia. My response to the intense sadness created by the increasing spread of red in my small corner of the world is to try to recreate the forest in my own way. It is ironic to use pulp which contains fiber from healthy pine trees and combine it with sawdust from dead pine trees to produce these twenty-four cylinders reminiscent of pine trees.

Dead pine trees, tinder dry. What will remain?

Dead pine trees,
Tinder dry.
What will remain?
Desiree Whitely

Sowchea Elementary School, Grade 7
Oil Pastel
Ft St James
2007

I feel that we should watch our trees more. The pine beetles are killing such a large amount of trees, we should be more careful. This is a very big impact. Soon the pine trees will be gone and the forest will be bare, red and ugly.