Artist explores people's connection to trees

A forest full of giant quarters: that’s the last thing I expected to see at Diane Way’s new show at the VASA Gallery.

This collection from the St. Albert watercolour painter is a beautiful tribute to trees, with many pure representational pieces and some abstracts even – itself a stretch for Way. They’re all fine works.

But it’s the one hidden off in the corner behind her studio that immediately catches my eye.

It’s clearly a forest scene with many healthy trees. Instead of a herd of actual caribou grazing through the grove, there’s a family of Canadian quarters (with tail-side caribou, naturally) in a surreal scene of socio-political commentary.

“I don’t usually do that,” Way admitted, explaining that she originally did it for a show a few years ago called Tuktu Prayers at the Royal Alberta Museum. Tuktu, she further adds, is one of Canada’s First Nation words for caribou, or elk. That travelling exhibit in 2007 was intended to demonstrate the need for conservation of one of the country’s iconic animal species.

“That was my take on the decline of the caribou population. I thought it was really appropriate [for this show] because this is also about conserving our boreal forests, which makes up, I think, the largest ecosystem in the world,” she said.

Obviously an artist with a conscious, Way compiled these works as a tribute to the trees. In her artist statement, she expounds on her theory of the importance of people’s connections to trees.

“We built tree houses and forts, scrambled up trees, fell out of trees, and observed lively birds flit from branch to branch. Forests are central to all human life.”

That, added with her note about 2011 being the International Year of Forests, means that we as a species need to explore our own emotional and spiritual relationships with trees. Profound considerations aside, Way hopes that people will at least remember what it was like to climb a tree or hang from a branch.

“Trees are my crowd,” is how her statement ends.