Ava P Christl | Drawings from the Boreal Forest
Ava P Christl
Drawings from the Boreal Forest
FOCUS GALLERY, August 4 - 26, 2023
These drawings are part of a much larger project on the circumpolar Boreal Forests. Boreal forests are the world's largest biome/ ecosystem, helping regulate climate through the exchange of energy and water and through storing carbon.
The current warming trend is unprecedented in its speed and is more pronounced in the north than in the rest of the world. Impacts include melting permafrost, changes in tree growth rates, and increased wild fires.
I think about how forest are used and what their value is - economic, social, cultural and spiritual. Much is now known about how trees are related and interconnected, and how they communicate with, and support one another during times of drought or wildfires. Trees are living beings and forests, in my view, are sacred spaces that hold value for our human wellbeing.
Over the next few years, I will be attending artist residencies in other boreal forest locations to learn how other circumpolar regions use their forests for recreation, resource and solace. The overall project may include intimate portraits of individual trees, composite images of borderlands, and / or delicate portrayals of flora in our circumpolar Boreal forests. I intend to embody ideas around forest loss and regeneration using creative and aesthetic appeal, and an activist approach to encourage action.
My aim is to understand the nature and impact of our circumpolar Boreal forests; to address urgent issues around forests; expand awareness and encourage action around preserving and regenerating our forests; and, as always, to visually express the beauty and wonder of Boreal forests
I aspire to express both the value and the wonder of forests, while pointing to the need for their preservation for our human wellbeing on this one planet, our physical and spiritual homeland.
AVA P CHRISTL
Ava P Christl holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University in Halifax and a Certificate of Adult Education from the University of Victoria. Her paintings have been exhibited nationwide, and are held in private and public collections across North America, including the Government of Yukon Permanent Art Collection, the Yukon Hospital Corporation and the Art Bank of Canada in Ottawa.
Ava’s work lies at the intersection of art and ecology, nature and spirit. She mostly makes large scale oil paintings about the land; about nature and place; nature as healer; the vast wilderness; and our human relationship to the living land.
Her work addresses landscape and memory; grief, loss and recovery; longing and belonging; and the concept of entropy as related to the land.
Past Exhibitions
