Eveline Kolijn - "Developing Prairie Roots"

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 2,  1-3pm

In 2011 Eveline Kolijn embarked on a collaborative project with Romy Straathof to collect plant material from the prairies and use the fibres to create a variety of papers. She experimented and created 21 types of paper 100% made of herbs and vast fibres of local plants, trees and shrubs. The by-products of this fascinating process generated rich brown inks and partially stripped branches.

She extended the project with embossed linocuts printed with leftover pulp from their papermaking project. She has also been experimenting with printing with natural materials, such as ground metallurgical coal and bee-pollen. She also started to sculpt into branches and rocks she found while collecting these fibres. In her prints, she investigates the ecology for the land and looked into “ranch-ecology” – the relationship between the “ranch-ecology”- the relationship between the ranch and the land and environmental issues relating to the fracking and oil exploration.