The Elements

Before I left for Uganda, I had begun to work on this piece for a FAN-sponsored show entitled "The Elements". I had completed the bottom portion of the design, with red-orange-yellow colours against the neutral beige of a piece of raw silk. Today I worked on the companion piece for it - yellows-greens and blues, once again set against the neutral beige of raw silk. This piece was inspired by the rock walls I saw during visits to New Brunswick and Newfoundland last year. They were built to last, these walls. They are solid, strong, and are testament to the vision our forefathers had for the new land they were settling. They speak of courage and of hope, of a tenacity of spirit in spite of the elements that conspired against them. They were built to withstand storms, and wars, and to outlast the people who built them. There is something ethereal in their worn shapes and rounded edges, something that reminds me of our elders, and their resilience and our resilence too. They will still be there long after I am gone, part of our cumulative history, part of my history.