Tribute to the Mother Tree, 1 of 3 Collage

Born in Toronto Ontario, I'm now fortunate enough to live on the west coast of Canada, and I'm completely in love with the natural environment around me. While my art is seldom a literal representation of my landscape, the natural world I walk through informs the textures, lines and colours in my work. I'm presenting a series of animal silhouette images, of Canadian wildlife, initially the series was mostly west coast creatures, including Elk, Bear, Orca, Starfish, Deer, Bison, Beaver, Salmon and Cod. As the series grew, it expanded to include many types of creatures economically or culturally important in the history of Canada and colonial impact. The series includes a variety of medium, the 'Dropcloth' series uses backgrounds created using the paper that covers my work surface when I paint, and the 'Maps' series uses old/recycled paper maps. The Pen and Ink series explores using black lines to define positive and negative space of animal silhouettes, by using lines represent textures of plants and also to outline the shapes of animals. The animal silhouette series has expanded to include trees and clouds, so the creatures have an environment.