Temagami and Me

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)

Part V


Three Soldiers Standing
Needlepoint
9” x 7”
2006

It was about one month before our “walk” throughout Southern Ontario was to begin. My partner, Alan and I were very excited to realize that our efforts in creating ‘The Temagami Trail Tribute’ would bring to the public’s attention this ancient forestland’s struggle for survival as bulldozers and chainsaws were being fueled. We had the venues for our presentations in ten communities organized, travel and documentary equipment had been sponsored and now we were ready to focus on promoting these events.


Our next efforts concentrated on talking with reporters from each of the communities we were to visit. The overwhelming support that we received was very surprising and we were both greatly encouraged.


Each community newspaper wrote an article about our upcoming walk and what our goals were. These stories educated the public to realize that our environment was in jeopardy and many readers were inspired to learn more by attending our presentations. Reporters also attended our event and later, other stories were published to continue spotlighting the issues concerning clear-cut forestry practices in the Temagami region.

During our time in Woodstock, Ontario the local radio station caught wind of our expedition and soon Alan and I were sitting in front of microphones with many thousands of people hearing our story. Because of this unexpected interest in our journey our audience, that afternoon, was significantly larger when compared to other venues.


The local police helped with our walk, as well. After each presentation we asked those in attendance to join our walk for a short distance. Our small groups numbering from seven and sometimes up to twenty-five people filled the roadways for a kilometer or so and this turned quite a few heads. The police helped to clear traffic as our group traveled through each town with lit candles and torches.

Although Alan and I were the leaders of this substantial effort, the successes that we reached came about because of the voluntary actions of a great number of caring people. We knew that alone we would not be able to ‘change the world’ and all of the support we received made us feel united with the people who would.

(To be continued…)

+ + +

Three Soldiers Standing is the smallest of the seven artworks created in this series. It’s small in size, but it still took almost a month to complete.


I dabbled in the world of needlepoint for a couple of years and I really enjoy all the different ways that coloured threads can be used to create interesting textures. I don’t think I used the traditional ‘cross-stitch’ even once during my self-taught training. The stitch that I’ve used in this artwork I have named ‘the log stitch’ cuz it looks like lots of different sized logs placed either vertically or horizontally on the canvas.

The title comes from the three large White Pines that are found in the foreground of this distancing landscape – they are a bit darker than the rest of the trees in the foreground. The news article (above) has the caption “Temagami trek ‘last stand’ against forest destruction”. A ‘stand’ refers to a group of trees. The three White Pines reminded me of soldiers ‘stand’ing on guard and protecting the forest, thus the title ‘Three Soldiers Standing’.

The title also was inspired with thoughts of hope for the Temagami forestland. Because of ongoing positive developments founded on the work of so many interlinked environmental protection groups, I believe that our future will include the Temagami forestland! More work still needs to be done – much more work – but the first initial steps have been laid and all of this positive action has inspired these ‘Three Soldiers’ to remain ‘Standing’ for as long as it takes to bring peace and under‘Standing’ to this ancient forestland and our distancing future.

This series of seven artworks was entitled ‘Reflections of Temagami’ and in each artwork there is a reflection. Most of the artworks use a reflection as a main design feature, but this artwork doesn’t. The reflection in ‘Three Soldiers Standing’ is very subtle, and you can see it along the edges of the two small lakes.

Again, this artwork was given to a close friend, after my year-long art tour had completed. Joe M. and I have known each other since Kindergarten and we had a chance to meet up at another friends wedding, a few years ago. Joe lives in the U.S. close to the west coast, so we rarely get a chance to visit. I could have mailed the artwork to him, but it was nicer to have been able to present it to him in person.

Jim

Temagami and Me

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)
Part IV


Forest Breathing – A Detail
36” x 48”
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
2006


Alan and I had decided to create a walk throughout Southern Ontario to raise awareness about the Temagami forestland and the threat to its survival. This walk became known as The Temagami Trail Tribute!


Since Alan and I had never done anything like this before we first had to create a plan of action. We decided to focus our action on education. To do this we created a forty-five minute long presentation, using slides and music, to tell the story of how this problem came to exist and our hopes for a peaceful solution. The Klienburg Art Gallery donated many slides of the artworks created be THE GROUP OF SEVEN artists which were used in our presentation to showcase the beauty of our Northern forestlands.


Next we had to figure out how long our walk would be and where it would take us. Many days were spent looking at maps of Southern Ontario as we calculated how far we could walk in a day and where we would be spending our nights sleeping. We decided that a ten-day walk, visiting ten communities between London and Toronto would be a challenge that we could accomplish.


After communities were chosen, we began contacting people within each community to arrange venues for our presentations. We received support and encouragement from everyone we spoke with. Every venue was donated to our cause and soon other businesses were helping us reach our goal. Novack's donated rain gear and hiking boots and Stan C. Reade donated film and camera equipment. Ecosource Paper, from British Columbia, donated all the hemp paper we needed for our promotional needs.

One day I was making photocopies on the 'tree-free' paper and a gentleman inquired about what my partner and I were doing. He was so impressed with our dedication to such a noble cause that he paid for all of our flyers. All of this support was very encouraging and inspirational, but we still had a lot of work ahead of us…

(to be continued…)

+ + +

My favourite subjects in high school and college were designing and drafting. In these courses we learned how valuable it is to create ‘detail’ drawings. A detail is like a zoomed in look at a particular area of a previous drawing. That was my inspiration for creating ‘Forest Breathing – A Detail’.

I really enjoyed creating the canvas ‘Forest Breathing’ and I knew that there were more ideas in that painting that my brushes couldn’t explore the first time around. I wanted to explore different colours and different ways of applying my brush strokes. I didn’t want to recreate the same painting, so I thought of ideas that I had learned while I was in college studying architecture.

I bought a different sized canvas – larger this time – and although I used the same colour slide image to create this painting, I zoomed in on just one smaller area, creating my detail.

+ + +

As I mentioned, in my last blog, I decided that I didn’t want to sell this group of artworks, after my year long tour through Southern Ontario was finished. I had decided to give them away, to family and close friends.

This artwork was given to a friend who I have known since Kindergarten – almost my whole life.

Mary-Jane S. lives close to the town where we went to high school and she is now a teacher in a local elementary school. Joanne and I have visited with her and her family on several occasions while enroute to my parents’ house.

I often wonder if Mary-Jane has ever used this painting to teach her students about the Temagami forestland, and the importance of preserving natural environments.

Jim

Temagami and Me

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)
Part III


Earthangel
Coloured Ink on Drawing Board
16” x 28”
November 2006

I left the Temagami information session in Toronto with a smile on my face and determination in my heart. “We will save this ancient forest!” I thought to myself, “We will!!” though I had no idea HOW.

One month later a curious event took place… It was my day off work and I was enjoying the sunshine as I walked along the Thames River Bike Path, here in London, Ontario. Along came this beautiful Husky dog, bounding my way, and close behind was her owner. I bent over to scratch Mia behind her ears and Alan and I exchanged friendly words.


Soon we were talking about the architecture of the future and being done with the subdivision sprawls that are overtaking this city. Alan was a recent graduate in the field of Aquaculture and he shared ideas about using this education to build a clean water existence in homes and communities that would benefit Nature. We both knew that these ideas would take decades to achieve. We both agreed that it was hard enough trying to encourage people to recycle and be nice to each other and here we were dreaming about PEACE ON EARTH and which ideas would lead us there. We both wanted to do something positive.


I told Alan of my most recent educational experience where I learned about the Temagami forestland, located in Northern Ontario and how this unique species of forest is being threatened with extinction by the hand of man. He listened intently as I explained how a natural forest breathes and lives. I asked him to join me and my ambitions to raise awareness about these issues with others.


I told of my most recent ideas inspired by peaceful warriors of the past. I wanted to create a walk, similar to other great walks that colour Canada’s history. This walk would be a tool to share the story of Temagami’s struggle for survival and to share a vision for peaceful understandings leading to positive action for future generations. Alan smiled. THE TEMAGAMI TRAIL TRIBUTE was about to be realized…

(to be continued...)

+ + +

To create my ‘Reflections of Temagami: A Group of Seven’ artworks for my then upcoming 2007 art tour, I was using the colour slide photos I had taken – while in the Temagami region - as my inspiration. But, I had to be very selective as to which photos I would use. In keeping with my idea, any image that I selected had to have a reflection in it.


This is the photo that inspired ‘Earthangel’. You can clearly see that the majority of this photo is of the water, with the forest being reflected on it. My main focus while taking this photo was to capture the reflection of the shoreline, with all the wonderful textures of the rocks. The reflected blues of the sky were an added bonus.


As with ‘Forest Breathing’, I felt compelled to rotate this photo 90 degrees. I spent many moments enjoying how this rotated photo filled my imagination with delightful thoughts and impressions. Within the rocky shoreline I saw head, chest and belly of an organic beast. The tree trucks were arms held aloft and covered with the greens of the trees to become wings for my rock being. This creature looked like it was flying through a sky filled with the deepest of blues.

Since this creature was flying, I thought that it was an angel soaring over the Temagami forestlands, filled with my prayers of hope for its salvation. Since its body was made of the rocks, soil, bushes and trees of the Earth I thought that the final artwork should be called ‘Earthangel’… my personal prayer.

So… I had my inspiration. Now I needed to figure out what medium and which style of rendering I was going to use.


I woke up one morning, and as I was rousing around I was wistfully enjoying a quilt that my wife had made and hung in our bedroom. This quilt is quite a delight for the eyes – it’s one of my favourite art peaces that adorns our walls. I became taken in by the colour shifts throughout the quilt – colours beginning in a mixture of purples, slowly shifting into dark blues.


The background of this quilt was made using squares. Each square was made using five different angular shapes. A lightbulb lit up over my waking head!!!!!


I used the same idea – just arranged slightly differently. This square – made up of five different angled shapes became the blueprint for the texture used to create ‘Earthangel’.


I allowed myself to be able to rotate this design to look like this…


… and this…


… and this, to allow me to have four possible ways to use this one design. This proved to be very helpful when designing the most intricate part of ‘Earthangel’ – the tree trunks/wings.


I decided to use coloured inks for this artwork. By adding small drops of water to my inks I was able to create the many different tones of blue used to create the sky. When looking at the above detail you may think that I used three or four different tones of green, but that is not the case. Only one tone of green was used.

One thing that I learned about painting with coloured inks is that deeper and richer colours can be created by painting an area more than once using the same colour. There is a limit though – at the limit an area can be painted only four times and then it becomes saturated. Any attempt to paint an area five or six times will see the drawing board being worked on, fall apart in little clumps of soaking paper.

By using this technique I was able to quadruple the number of coloured tones to be presented in the final artwork.

+ + +

As all of the seven artworks were being completed, I began to wonder what I should do with them. Should I put them up for sale? Should I donate them to a charity after the art tour was finished?

I finally decided to give them away to my friends, who I know would respect and cherish them. The first in this series of seven ‘Fallen Comrade’ was given to my parents. ‘Forest Breathing’ was given to my friend Jim Mikol – he appears in the above newspaper article. ‘Earthangel’ ended up being my favourite of the seven and so I decided to keep this one for myself. In a future blog I’ll continue to mention who the other artworks were given to.


Here’s ‘Earthangel’ as it appears on my dining room wall. This photo was taken just two hours ago.

But wait!!!! What’s this???? Who’s this bald guy???

Yup! It’s me, but what’s with the sporty bald look?

Indeed… that’s another story!

Jim

Temagami and Me

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)

Part II


Forest Breathing
Acrylic paint on canvas
24” x 36”
2006

I was spending a bit of time at a local book store, searching for books that would explain why our environment was in such peril, when I spotted a small folded flyer that told the story of Temagami.


The Temagami brochure was filled with lots of information that peeked my desire to learn more. There was a phone number available for those who wanted to attend an upcoming meeting. After a few phone calls I found myself on a train bound for Toronto.


I was glad to attend a gathering of wonderful people, curious to find ways to become involved. I listened as slides were shown, to tales that explained the uniqueness of this forest. I learned about ‘species of environments’ and that Temagami was an OLD GROWTH RED AND WHITE PINE species of forest. I was shocked to learn that only 1% of this species remains on our Earth.


Temagami is the largest of the last few remaining stands. I had a difficult time understanding how this situation came to this critical point. It seemed obvious, to me, that under such conditions all actions should focus on the preservation and expansion of such life reservoirs. I learned that once an area has been clear-cut and the roots dug up and burned in lines of fire that stretch across the horizon that heavy rains wash much soil away leaving exposed rock where nothing will grow.


The moment when I became hooked by desire to find positive ways to protect this ancient history was when I learned how a forest breathes. The speaker began talking about all the animals, birds and insects that work in unison within a natural environment. She told how old decaying trees feed the roots of new saplings as they reach for the sky through the hole in the forest canopy that was created by the fallen tree from over twenty years previous. I thought about the forests that I’ve hiked through in Southern Ontario and then I understood the vast differences between a naturally balanced habitat and a managed tree plantation.

I still had a lot more to learn, but now I felt that it was time to do something… before it was too late!

To be continued…..

+ + +

‘Forest Breathing’ was inspired by a photo that I took while adventuring through the Temagami region. The photo was a bit overexposed and that gave it a washed out look – making it look almost monochromatic (one colour). When I turned the photo on its side, my imagination saw a variety of animal faces – almost like a totem pole. I found this inspiring and soon my paintbrushes became rather busy.

I decided to make the painting monochromatic, using only two tones of one hue. Those of you with a sharp eye will notice that a blue and a magenta hue also grace this canvas. These colours were added, in small doses, to make the painting just a little more interesting.


I painted ‘Forest Breathing’ in a style that I have called ‘contour’ painting – referring to contour lines that you can find on any topographical map. First I apply one strip of paint around a shape that I’ve traced onto the canvas – as my guidelines. Once that wiggley line of paint has dried I paint another line right beside it… and so on, until the entire shape has been filled it.

Jim

Temagami and Me

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)
Part I


Reflections of Temagami I: Fallen Comrade
Black ink on drawing board
36” x 24”
1996


I am not a gambling man, and, even so, I would wager that there exists no person over the age of twelve who has not heard of, or seen on T.V. a disastrous environmental story. At age twenty-five I had, indeed, heard my fair share of frightening events and yet my growing concerns only confused me.

I became curious to understand the history of these problems…

I read books about the rise of our Industrial culture and global populations. I watched a television show about rising sea levels and the spread of disease and wondered about a picture of a baby whale dying in a fisherman's net. I heard about rivers on fire caused by water pollution. I flipped through a book with pictures of garbage trucks loading ocean barges with thousands of tones of North American waste to be exported to poorer countries. I sighed as I read an essay that explained the reasons for world hunger. I cried as I rode my bike home from work past another subdivision that had recently been a small wood lot and farmer's field. I felt a sense of desperation as I saw a photograph depicting 'Adam and Eve' in the year 2047...realizing that the image was (at that time) already five years old.

I picked up a pamphlet that told the story of TEMAGAMI.

I smiled to my girlfriend and whispered that everything was going to be all right. I learned that many people were taking action to raise awareness about a sacred forestland on the brink of extinction caused by clear cutting and I wanted to learn more.

To be continued…

+ + + +

You may notice that this first of a seven-part story is rather short! Actually, all seven parts are about this length. I didn’t want my story to take away from the artworks that were on display during my ‘Reflections of Temagami’ art tour, so I did a lot of editing to make sure that my story fit neatly onto just seven pages – one page was displayed beneath each of the seven artworks.

I have always considered ‘Fallen Comrade’ to be my first ever artwork. Yes – many of my school friends remind me that my youth was filled with lots of drawings and sketches and Yes – I spent my years in college creating many drawings and sketches for my architectural and interior design programs…. but all of that was schoolwork or just a bit of fun.

‘Fallen Comrade’ represents to me, the first time that I had focussed and bent my creativity towards an inspirational cause.


While in the Temagami region – this seven-part story will soon take us there – I took a lot of photographs. I really wanted to capture the variety of landscapes that unfolded and revealed themselves during my journey to this very special place.

Upon my return, I waited very impatiently as my slides were developed. Yes – I was shooting with colour slide film! Joanne and I packed a small lunch into a knapsack and took the developed slides to a park area, here in London, Ontario, to see the final results. We made an afternoon of it realizing that each photo would start a long conversation.

I was very happy with most of them… and a bit devastated that a few of my hopeful favourites didn’t turn out at all – oops! Wrong setting on the camera!!

When we got to the photo of the image that inspired ‘Fallen Comrade’ my breath was taken away. I felt tingles crawling down my spine. I heard a whispering voice from within the photo telling me to draw! And, so, I did!

One month later, I wondered what I would do with this completed ink drawing. I thought about making copies, selling them and using part of the profits to benefit other groups who were also involved in raising awareness about the Temagami forestland. But I didn’t know how to do this.

I ended up speaking with Diny O’Dell at Artisans Alley (she is still there and I still visit her about twice a year) and I showed her my drawing. A more encouraging person I have never met!! I still believe that had I not met Diny that I may not have continued to pursue my newfound talents!

Her advice was that I shouldn’t think about making prints and trying to sell them at this point. It would be best if I just continued drawing…“and don’t ever stop!” And, so, I did!


The next decade and a half, presented many unique and life-changing adventures for my wife and myself. As ‘Fallen Comrade’ was so large and I didn’t want to see it damaged during our many moves, I decided to give it to my parents. Soon, this drawing was delicately matted and put behind glass and hung in my parents’ living room, where I am still able to enjoy it when I go to visit.

I’m sure that this drawing will be a part of my family for many generations to come.

Jim

Temagami and Me

(An Artist Should I Learn To Be)

The Introduction…

For the last several years, I have been enjoying sharing stories about my art adventures, gardening experiences and thoughts designed to inspire a world to realize our responsibility to act in positive ways to ensure a peaceful future for all life forms that inhabit this Earth. The one thing that I have yet to do, though, is share the story about how I became the artist, the gardener, the teacher, the musician… the activist and architect for peace. This story dates back to 1996, but before I get into that I want to briefly describe how this story first came into being, so that you’ll understand my reasons for writing it in seven small parts…


So… it should be obvious that this story revolves around a thing called Temagami – after all, this word is in the title – eh! Temagami is the name of a place where a unique species of forest exists.


This forest species was (and still is…) threatened with extinction and I decided to do something about it.


After this adventure, I discovered that I had been blessed with a gift for expression… I was becoming an artist. I had thoughts about creating a series of artworks to share the beauty of this region so that more people would become involved in the efforts to preserve these lands.

The artworks created by Canada’s most noted talents ‘The Group of Seven’ were my inspiration. I wanted to create a series of seven Temagami landscapes and I was going to call it ‘A Group of Seven’. I thought a bit more deeply and came up with the idea that each landscape would have a reflection in it. The concept of reflections (thoughts reproduced to the eye of the mind) is very important as this allows one the ability to regard the past so as to improve the future.

Soon, the first artwork in this series was completed. I had named it ‘Reflections of Temagami I: Fallen Comrade’. You’ll see this artwork in my next blog.

Although I was very pleased with this art peace – it still graces the walls in my parents’ living room – I found that my mind could not gather the strength to continue with this series…

I became rather depressed. Although my adventures in the Temagami forestland were filled with many enlightening experiences – in one instance my body became a tuning fork and I vibrated with the energies of ten thousand years of life – I felt that this series of artworks would be seen as Temagami’s epitaph instead of its resurrection.

How could I bring inspiration to the world if the subject matter delved into the ‘Fallen’? Was Temagami to die so that I may live?

To battle this depression, I focussed my mind on new and different thoughts… shedding the past to rebuild my future. Temagami had become the most important chapter in my life (to this date), but a chapter that I had to put back onto my shelf – not to be forgotten, but not to be trapped within.


Two years later, I was embracing a new art project that would fill the next five years of my life. “Canada: Glorious To Be” took my wife and I across our great nation – from Manitoba to British Columbia to Nova Scotia and way up north to Nunavut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp3iPj_Kefc&context=C3b9718aADOEgsToPDskIVdT29cDE5N2t8pgPcKs72


During these adventures I expanded my art training to a variety of different mediums – needlepoint, paper collage, acrylic paints, even rocks! Many community organizations were thrilled to have me create workshops for the local youths and soon I was learning how to be a teacher.

I shared ideals about how important it is for individuals to act in positive ways to benefit their community - “Think globally… Act locally!” - and after five years I began to find it ironic that I was not living according to these ideals for I had no community to call my own. Joanne and I moved back to Ontario to create a life for ourselves.


Soon, I had established myself as a freelance environmental art teacher and life was moving along smoothly.

The topic for most of my classes was… you guessed it… Temagami!!! To help in my teaching, I had to revisit many of my early photos, drawings and books on the subject. Since most of this material was over a decade old, I did a little investigating to see how this forest was doing now.

I was elated to learn that although many problems still exist – the pressures by the large logging corporations – many new laws and programs had been created to set the foundation for the preservation of these old growth forest stands!!! I was filled with a renewed sense of hope!

The story of Temagami was not over. In fact, I felt that it was just beginning. My doubts and hesitations from a decade before were eroding and my fires of inspiration began to smolder until a new flame awoke within me. A new audience had evolved during this time and I felt the urge to create a new chapter in the world book of Temagami.

Yes – Temagami was my ‘Fallen Comrade’, but ‘Fallen’ implies that it can be picked up again.

As I continued with this ‘A Group of Seven’ titles like ‘Three Soldiers Standing’, ‘Earthangel’ and ‘Forest Breathing’ began to emerge at the ends of my nimble fingertips – filling the viewer with a sense of great struggle and the will to overcome adversary. I used this opportunity to showcase both the beauty of the Temagami forestland as well as the evolution of my artistic abilities. Each of the seven artworks were created using the artforms that I had been experimenting with over the last decade.


While I was completing these artworks – which took me a little over two years – I was organizing my first art tour. Yes – I had had many art displays here and there throughout London (and the rest of Canada) - but this was to be my first tour showcasing a completed body of work. The tour went through many libraries and it also expanded to many of the communities that were involved in my initial adventures a decade before.


The launch of ‘Reflections of Temagami: A Group of Seven’ was mere weeks away and I was making my final preparations when I had a gut feeling that I was missing something. The artworks were finished and framed. I had built the easels that would be needed for a few of the venues. My accompanying photos were mounted and ready. And then it dawned on me… I had created this new chapter filled with images but I had no words. It was then when I realized that I had to share the intimate details about how I heard of Temagami, what this meant to me, how it inspired me, what I did and what the results were.


Since I had seven artworks to showcase, I thought that it would be a great idea to share my story in seven equal parts. One part of the story would hang beside each of the artworks. Simple!


This is the story that I am going to share with you over the next few weeks. Each story will be accompanied by one of the artworks in this series as well as some additional photos and sketches that were created during this time.

Please enjoy!

Jim