Articulation's Forest and Sea and the Place Between Artist Reception April 13th, 2019

Cedar Wind Drawing, detail

The Artist Reception for Articulation's 'Forest and Sea and the Place Between' exhibition at Portals Gallery, Duncan is on Saturday 13th from 3 to 5 pm.

Artists Wendy Klotz, Ingrid Lincoln, and Lesley Turner will be in attendance to talk about their work and they look forward to answering questions about the exhibition.

Tree Wind Drawings

My contribution to the exhibition and the Salish Sea biosphere story is a triptych of 3 drawings done be 3 different trees found in the Pacific Northwest coastal maritime forest.

Big-leaf Maple

Douglas-fir and Western Red Cedar

 By getting the trees to draw on a fabric I explored the connection between the air and the earth in the Salish Seas' biosphere.

I blogged about my process to make the first of these works here.

Understanding this place we call home is an ongoing area of interest for me and continues to be an area of focus in my work.

Articulation's Salish Sea Biosphere Study Sessions

Jellyfish in the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea.

Articulation has had 2 week-long study sessions exploring Vancouver Island's coastal areas. The first was in 2007 and based in  Duncan while the second was ten years later in 2017 and based in both Sidney and Tofino. All areas are within the Salish Sea biosphere boundary which is the overarching concept tying this study together.

Sunset on Chesterman Beach.

The Salish Sea biosphere is a vast area of interconnected habitats where living organisms are found -  in the geosphere of soil and rock, the hydrosphere of lakes, rivers, and oceans, and in the weather systems in the atmosphere.

Articulation members walking the trails on the west coast - Wendy Klotz, Leann Clifford, Amanda Onchulenko, Donna Clement.

Researching in Vancouver Island's Maritime Rainforests involved walking the trails, recording sensory experiences in a journal, taking photographs of both minute details and the soaring grandeur of ancient trees, and reading both fiction and nonfiction with forest settings.

Lunch break while looking out to the sea.

Articulation members experience the same visual stimuli and discuss what they find and see during the week together.

Leann Clifford ready to go look for whales.

Watching the sunset from the beach.

Donna Clement explores mud flats while the tide is in.

Leann Clifford and Ingrid Lincoln and jellyfish.

Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea is an ideal place to learn about local sea life.

Taking the ferry out to Sidney Spit. Amanda Onchulenko, Leann Clifford, Ingrid Lincoln, Donna Clement.

After a shared experience spent exploring an area and keeping the broad concept in mind, Articulation members go back to their individual studios to produce bodies of work that reflect their individual responses their experiences. It is always a treat when the resulting work is exhibited to see how each artist visually translates their particular area of interest.

For more about Articulation's Salish Sea project check out Articulation's website and blog here and here.

Also, Donna Clement's blog here

New Work - Geography of Memory, Beginnings

This new work began when the Vancouver Island Surface Design Association put out a call for entry. They were looking for an interpretation of 'Pathways' in a 60" x 12" format.

Sarah McLaren and I had been focused on colour for many months and were both inspired by the colour work of Jean-Philippe and Dominique Lenclos. This couple research the colours typical to a specific place in the world.

New Zealand Forest
Sarah and I have both lived in a number of different places over our lifetimes. We decided to show our memories of those places through colour with each inch of the work representing one year in our lives.

I began by making a life-size sketch then started sampling. My visualisation of this work was so clear my first sample was enough at this stage of my design process to be able to move on to the next step.

I made the base for the ground from a mix of upholstery fabrics heavy enough to support all of the stitching I had in mind.

Next step - deciding on the colour scheme, which was easy because of my strong colour memory of each place I have lived.

Picking the right ground fabrics took a little bit longer even knowing most of them would be covered they still had to be right. 

The base fabrics are bonded to the upholstery fabrics in the right proportions.

Painted bondable webbing ...

...to match each place's colours.

Ironing the painted bondable webbing in place.

Adding snippets of threads, yarns and fabrics to build up the complexity and texture of each section.

Selecting the right coloured nylon scarf from my stash.

Bonding the snippets and nylon scarves in place using parchment paper to stop the iron's sole plate from getting gunked up.

I sprinkled a few granules of 007 Bonding Agent to make sure thicker areas of snippets stuck well. It takes a higher heat setting on the iron to make these granules melt but once they have they stick very well and become invisible.

This is an old and well-used method for building a ground before stitching begins. I learnt this during my City and Guilds days and still go back to it because it is so effective and versatile.

Next step - the stitching. 

Backyard Project: Pattern Language #167 Six-foot Balcony

Lifting and stacking pavers for reuse in reworked walkways and sitting areas.

Pattern Language #167 Six-foot Balconies, verandahs, terraces, porches, and arcades along the building edge or halfway into it.

The Problem: 'Balconies and porches which are less than six feet deep are hardly ever used.' Pattern Language, p. 782.

Here is the 4-foot deep original guest bedroom patio. The pavers are 1 foot by 2 feet in size. It is not a walkway either because it doesn't lead anywhere. According to the Pattern Language, it wasn't used as a patio because nowhere was it at least 6 feet deep. 

'Balconies and porches are often made very small to save money; but when they are too small, they might just as well not be there. A balcony is first used properly when there is enough room for 2 or 3 people to sit in a small group with room to stretch their legs, and room for a small table where they can set down glasses cups, and the newspaper. No balcony works if it is so narrow that people have to sit in a row facing outward.' p. 783.

Arial view of what is left of the original guest room patio after construction trenches were dug and the river stone garden bed was removed. 

We had reworked some other paved areas to make the walkways more obvious by reducing their width. This one is now 4 feet wide instead of being staggered up to 6 feet wide. This gave us extra pavers to work with elsewhere and a bonus garden bed (yet to be developed).

The new guest room patio is now 6 and a half feet deep and 14 feet wide. The Pattern Language has found 'almost no balconies which are more than 6 feet deep are not used.'  It is going to be interesting to see if this reconfigured patio will be used.

The original patio was hardly inviting. Pattern Language explains why it was not a popular place to stop a while.

'Two other features of a balcony make a difference in the degree to which people will use it: its enclosure and its recession into the building. As far as enclosure goes, we have noticed that among the deeper balconies, it is those with half-open enclosures around them - columns, wooden slats, rose-covered trellises - which are used most. Apparently, the partial privacy given by a half-open screen makes people more comfortable.' p. 783.

Sitting out on this original patio one would feel exposed and vulnerable with the forest on one side and the dark underside of the balcony on the other. The flat wall of the house offers no protection or comfort. These are situational feelings humans still carry with them from hunter/gatherer days.

'Enclose the balcony with a low wall - sitting wall (coming), heavy columns (check - 6" x 6" cedar posts), and half open walls or screens (check - Propagation Room wall). Keep it open toward the south (partial check - it faces south but looks to a large cedar fence made of slats that will be covered in vines, while the east view is out to the forest). p. 784. 

The new patio will not be recessed into the original house but the addition of the Propagation Room has visually extended the building envelop and now gives the feeling of being tucked into a corner of the house.

Here's hoping we got enough of the Pattern Language # 167 incorporated into the design to make this patio a welcoming place for our guests to hang out on while offering privacy, protection and a view.

Backyard Project: Spreading the Gravel Transforms the Space

Everyone was excited by the transformation that took place as each path was cleared of rocks, levelled then covered with gravel. Josh, Dave and Taylor worked very hard wheelbarrowing loads of gravel, levelling and compacting.

The finished Pergola area compared with the rough path in the foreground.

The Arbour. No more stumbling over rocks and into holes. And the gravel makes the right sound when I walk on it. However, it is not friendly to bare feet.

Arbour path and Pergola. It was in the plan the Gravel Bed rocks would be lighter in value than the paths to make it read further away and deeper than it is. Also, the different value keeps the 2 'rooms' separate.

I used the longest path-guide stick to mark out the edge of the path with blue tape. This is a path the lawn tractor uses to enter the back yard through the cedar gate.

Sammy Kent, the owner of Pacific Ecoscapes, arrived with his team and started the preparation work on the hard surface for the Pergola area. 

Josh and Taylor prep the main path to my studio. I used the middle-sized path-guide stick to mark out its shape. It is a walking path 2 can walk along together and it can also accommodate a wheelbarrow.

Sammy worked with Josh's team advising on the best construction method for the landscape.

The log edges tie the studio beds to the log edges around the Hugel-kultur beds. They define the edge of the meadow areas and the add to the symmetry of the inviting approach to the Studio. They also help to make the Studio front door obvious.

The 2 main equipment items needed for the hard labour of moving and placing gravel are a wheelbarrow and a compactor.

It was decided to put a permeable cloth under the back path to the studio to restrict the growth of plants growing up through the gravel.

I had used the shortest path-guide stick to mark out this path. It is made for one person to walk along. It is my short route to the Studio when it is raining. Once the plants have matured it will barely be visible.

There was enough fabric to line the main path to the studio as well. With fabric down the gravel doesn't need to be as deep, only about 2 inches compared with the other paths that need over 3 inches of gravel to stop plants growing in it.

Backyard Project: The Path Gravel Arrives

Beep Beep Beep Beep

A truck is backing up the track, guided by Josh.

Yipee, the gravel has arrived.

Josh has set out some of the larger plywood pieces to form a barrier to restrict the flow of gravel when it is dumped.

Dumping the gravel.

Jencam Transport, Sidney BC

When the driver hopped out I asked if she was Jen. But no. The owner named his company after his daughter Jen and son Cam. 

I'm sorry I have forgotten the driver's name because she is very good. She arrived on time, took great care backing up the track and didn't touch any of the landscaping rocks with her truck.

Discussions about the current road conditions and the time the driver estimates she will be back with the 2nd load of gravel.

That's it - 3 loads of gravel.

Now the hard work starts.