be
Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
26 January 2021 Vol 6 No 02 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2021
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
Over the last few months, Saskatchewan artist Linda Duvall has been sending me postcards from the land – a tuft of animal fur cradled by dead leaves, spider webs woven through tall grasses, and my favourite, a deer's nest trampled in the snow.
Duvall types short messages on the back of each card.
"All night the wind blew the snow in knots in the fields and rattled the bones of the house,” reads one. “By the next morning, the wind abated but snowdrifts had reshaped the land. I struggled out through the drifts and in a bush stumbled upon a deer bed recently vacated.”
The postcards started arriving after Duvall sent an email requesting my address. “I am slowly getting to know this land better,” she wrote. “These are not dramatic events, but rather understated nuances and subtleties.”
The last time I wrote about Duvall, back in 2017, she was sharing a hole she had dug on her rural property with visitors who wanted to experience the Prairies in this unusual way.
If I lived closer, I would have loved to join her as I also love exploring nature. Since moving to Victoria in 2014, I've been learning about the natural history of the coastal ecozone. But it took the pandemic – and a badly sprained ankle – to slow me down enough to truly pay attention to what's closest to hand: the gardens in my James Bay neighbourhood.
On New Year's Day, I started a pandemic project, 365 Days of Flowers. The goal is photograph a different type of flower each day for a year. It has become a focus for my daily walks. So far, my documentation includes roses, daffodils, snowdrops, irises, hellebores, dandelions and more. Who knew this would be possible in Canada in January?
I’m sure some of you have started your own pandemic projects. Here at Galleries West, we've begun gathering information on such projects for articles that look at how artists are responding to a year of crisis. We're excited to hear what you are working on, so please reach out, either with an email to me at editor@gallerieswest.ca or a note in the comments section below.
Now, onward to this issue. Nature’s Clothesline looks at the work of fabric artists concerned about the environmental cost of the 12 million tonnes of clothing Canadians needlessly discard each year. Wound Care reflects on work by Cindy Stelmackowich, originally from Saskatchewan, who brings together medical history and human anatomy.
Covered Ground considers two artists inspired by lichens in the Canadian North, while Human Capital reviews a Saskatchewan exhibition that considers the impact of Canada's immigration policies on marginalized communities.
We also have a report on the final auctions of the fall season and a bracing dose of colour courtesy of Vancouver artist Tiko Kerr.
Looking ahead, we're working on stories about a new graphic novel, Wendy, Master of Arts, by Montreal artist Walter Scott, and a Vancouver exhibition that looks at the contributions of landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Lauren Fournier, Paul Gessell, Doug Maclean, Bettina Matzkuhn, Sarah Swan, Helena Wadsley
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Special Measures for Journalism Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
