Saskatchewan Arts Board Charcoal Project 2022-2023
Appreciation is expressed to the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts for supporting this project.
Forest fires are increasing in frequency and intensity across our boreal landscapes due to changing climate. Yet few people enter these devastated landscapes to understand their impact on the environment let alone to create art.
The objective of my year long project funded by the SK Arts Board was to understand and document the impact of the natural environment on the transfer of charcoal from burnt forests to canvas. The process is similar to printmaking but it is the natural elements (wind, rain, snow, heat and cold) during a 5 month period that determine the rate of transfer of charcoal from the burnt logs to the canvas - so essentially the climate conditions becomes the press! I've coined this process as 'Char Art". To understand this process, half the canvases that were placed in the burnt forest were covered to exclude the elements with the hypothesis that covered canvases would not allow the rain and snow to aid in the leaching of charcoal thus resulting in little transfer. Sites were selected north of Prince Albert in the Fort a la Corne forest (English fire in 2020) and at McLennan Lake (Gray fire 2021) north of Missinipe SK.
Forest fires are increasing in frequency and intensity across our boreal landscapes due to changing climate. Yet few people enter these devastated landscapes to understand their impact on the environment let alone to create art.
The objective of my year long project funded by the SK Arts Board was to understand and document the impact of the natural environment on the transfer of charcoal from burnt forests to canvas. The process is similar to printmaking but it is the natural elements (wind, rain, snow, heat and cold) during a 5 month period that determine the rate of transfer of charcoal from the burnt logs to the canvas - so essentially the climate conditions becomes the press! I've coined this process as 'Char Art". To understand this process, half the canvases that were placed in the burnt forest were covered to exclude the elements with the hypothesis that covered canvases would not allow the rain and snow to aid in the leaching of charcoal thus resulting in little transfer. Sites were selected north of Prince Albert in the Fort a la Corne forest (English fire in 2020) and at McLennan Lake (Gray fire 2021) north of Missinipe SK.
The project results are shown in four sections: McLennan Lake Summer and Winter and Fort a la Corne summer and winter.
