A quick sneak peek of a painting on my mantle waiting to go to the gallery.
It’s a big piece, 30″ x 72″ and is inspired by the educational reader I illustrated for David Bouchard and Turtle Island Voices.
The show is One Week Away!
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The Bearclaw Gallery Presents:
“An Unbroken Spirit”
Paintings by Aaron Paquette
Show opens November 17, 2012
Artist in Attendance 2-4pm
10403 – 124street
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
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A few months ago I happened to look up at the sky and I almost fell down at the vision. What would normally be a waxing moon seemed to me suddenly like a pregnant belly, the rest of the woman submerged under the evening sky. I knew I had to share that image. This painting is dark, but so full of light everywhere! The teepees are a row of warm invitation, the roaring fire a beacon to home and safety. I like to imagine someone is out there, tending to the living fire, watching the sparks rise against the stars as they form a seamless union between heaven and earth. The mystery of the Northern Lights hovers up above, muted as it goes to rest with the rest of the world, and there she is. Dancing in the spinning cosmos, giving life in the same breath as she bequeaths death. We are all on a one way ticket from the moment we board this physical plane, and it is this balance of light and dark, birth and death, joy and melancholy – these things give meaning to it all.
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Sun, sky and water. All fluid, all in flux. Alive with light, this painting dances and moves in an enduring place of calm. This piece developed over a span of three years, I was in no rush with it and it wasn’t in a rush with me. It grew as I grew. It waited patiently for hands that could give it the life it wanted, for hands that understood. I respond to this piece in such a joyful way, it touches something deep inside me for which I have no words. When I’m away from it, it seems enormous to me, a large, almost overpowering piece, but then I see it again and marvel at the slightness of it, the unassuming proportions. It has captured some essence of illumination and shares it again.
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This is one of a group of paintings that flashed across my inner eye and I quickly sketched it out. The painting took me 9 months of labour to complete, growing at its own pace. I couldn’t have rushed it if I tried, and sometimes I did try. As it came closer and closer to completion I realized how much of my life was hidden in this piece like small bits of secret code, almost indecipherable. I look at it with a sense of satisfaction at being finished, and a sense of longing for the work to always continue.
There is a simplicity and a complexity to this piece. Some will see the hand as comforting, others will see it as threatening. What does it mean? I honestly don’t know. All I did was transcribe the already formed image onto canvas. Sometimes I feel like the Raven, defeated, hungry, hurt and weary. I just need to rest. And sometimes I feel like the Woman. Is my heart open, or has it been ripped out? Am I an angel, a mother, or a destroyer?
In the end it doesn’t matter. And that’s the way it works for life, too. All that matters is that there is a connection and a truth.
In the end, what else can we ask for?
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Sohkahcahkwewin ᓱᐦᑲᐦᒐᐦᑫᐧᐃᐧᐣ
It means having strength of soul.
I called this Cree Teachings because of the wisdom I have been honoured to receive from many teachers throughout my life. Some of the teachers hurt me, some of them loved me, and sometimes it was both. Here I have made the equivalent of birch bark, and inscribed upon it, painted on it, filled it with all the mysteries I know and then let it go. The four colours can be found on some Medicine Wheels, or not, and it doesn’t matter. I used the colours because they were healing for me, they were true for me. They are also the colours of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which would never have thrived were it not for the assistance they received from the many Indigenous people of Canada who shared their knowledge of how to survive in this country. The Company listened to how to survive, but they didn’t listen to how to live.
My main pursuit in this life is is to learn to live. To learn to set aside pain, to set aside fear. To instead embrace love, to be accepting and remove judgment as much as possible. I can only learn this through my interactions with others. We are each others constant teachers and students. The wisdom of the sky and the wisdom of a tree are no more or less significant than the wisdom of an ant or even the deep knowledge of an electron. By listening, always listening, we learn. Sohkahcahkwewin.
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The Face of AbundanceI made a little painting a couple years ago called Abundance. I loved painting it and wanted to return to the theme and explore the idea again. This time, instead of a sun it’s a golden being. Many people have commented on it, asking, “Is it the wind?”, or “I think it’s a soul about to be born.” The golden visage represents everything. Some would call it God, some Possibility, some Tao. I just know that it is. I feel it when I’m painting. We all feel it at some point or other. We feel it when we’re mindful. We feel it when we transcend the need to be patient and are just accepting. We feel it when we sit quietly, allowing our connection to nature flow through us and fill our senses, fill our souls.
I turn my face to the sun
The heat like gentle lips
Placed upon my skin
In benediction
There’s more than I can take
There’s abundance
Have you ever gotten close to a buffalo? Have you ever looked into one of those deep, limpid, liquid eyes? Has that buffalo spoken to you? What did she say? Did she tell you about her dreams? Did she talk about her calf, the day it was born, how it ran! Did she talk about circling the children when danger approached, forming a wall of flesh, fur and love? Of the dust rising in the heat of the day – parched and dry – to let them know it was time to move on? Did she describe the exhilarating pace as hooves struck the ground in a deep, satisfying, earth shaking rumble? Did she tell you about the day her baby fell down, never to get up again, as the iron horse rumbled past with a clanging mockery of their own thunder? Did she tell you how they all disappeared, the people starved and fences rose to carve apart the land? Did she tell you those dreams?
Did you listen?
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Sometimes words won’t come, or if they do they are insufficient. Threads that won’t weave, images that won’t stop and coalesce into form. Sometimes a painting goes so deep into dream it becomes difficult to tease out the simple meanings with which to clothe the chaos. This is such a work for me. I could say that Wolf is our clan, that I feel tied to animal life, that I am wild, contained only by strength of will, that at any moment I will turn from the city, from civilization, from the world of man and walk into the forest, never to return. I can talk about the vision fragments, of fire, of water rushing like sublime madness in my ears. Hearts beating, blood rushing, bodies racing, and then sky, endless sky and cool rain and the whispering winds. I can say all that and more and never have even begun. A howl wants to escape my lips just thinking on it.
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Opening: May 15, 2010
Closing: May 27, 2010
Artist in attendance May 15, 1-4pm
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So yes, it’s true. My first solo show in Edmonton City in a couple years is about to begin. I would be so happy and so honoured to see you come out and take a look at what I’ve been working on for the past while. I’ll be there from 1-4pm and look forward to it!
A.
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Bearclaw Gallery
10403-124 Street
Edmonton, AB
Email: info@bearclawgallery.com
TEL: 1+(780) 482-1204
FAX: 1+(780) 488-0928
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Saturday
10:00 AM – 5:30 PM
As an artist I use whatever tools I can get my hands on to make the process of creating my work as intuitive and simple as possible. The less I have to worry about the better as far as getting thought to reality is concerned.
That’s why I was really looking forward to the new Apple iPad.
I was imagining a device that would cut down on the clutter I would carry with me on regular day to day excursions. While it might be able to do that in some small ways, i suppose I was guilty of imagining something more.
Primarily what I’m talking about is drawing.
I was hoping for an included stylus and a nicely developed draw/paint program (app, as the kids say) that would allow me to have an eternally ready sketch pad that would never run out of paper and a pencil that would never run out of lead. A font of creative possibility!
The other imagined benefit would be that I could work out the colour schemes for my paintings on the iPad as well, moving things around intuitively, quickly and easily until I found just the right composition. Then it’s off to the painting!
The other thing I would have hoped for was a built in camera that would allow me to capture a fabric, a leaf, the way light was hitting a face – whatever I saw that could inspire me – right on the fly, to examine and study later when I had the time.
And lastly, a simple, easy way for me to record my process so that I could share it with others digitally online, or give to schools after a workshop.
I know that with a big bundle of electronics and old fashioned tools I could accomplish something close to all this, so it’s not like I am stuck on an island with only sand and coconuts to work with, but it would have been nice.
The technology is there and I really thought Apple would’ve put it all together.
Second Gen iPad, maybe?
Maybe.
In the meantime, I will still lovingly use my trusty pencil and paper sketchpad.
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On to other news:
I saw AVATAR!
Pretty astounded with the 3D. I kind of felt like I was in a living dream the entire time, the actors were right there, almost s real as flesh and blood (or a least as real as they’ll ever get without meeting them). I took my parents who never go out to the movies and was really delighted by their response during the film. It was like seeing them as they were when they were kids. While I really enjoyed the movies, I think watching my Mom and Dad was the best part.
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I’ve been pretty busy making school visits, speaking at conferences, and just generally sharing what I’ve gleaned after twenty years of art making. It’s extremely fulfilling and gets me out into the world and out of the studio, which let me tell you is pretty nice.
Next up is the Spirit Seekers Youth Conference in Grande Prairie and I have to say the team that puts that together is amazing. They’re professional, warm and really care about what they’re doing. I’m honored to be a part of their efforts. Thanks Delaine!
Keynote speakers will be Linsay Willier and James Jones of Canada’s Next Top Model and So You Think You Can Dance: Canada fame respectively. They’ve teamed up to create a Motivational Speaking enterprise so I’m really looking forward to hearing what they have to say.
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My good friend Ian Walker is currently developing my new website which will be aaronpaquette.com and that will be up sometime before spring. It will have everything I do in one place and when it goes up I’ll have a lot of neat things to share. Really excited about it.
And if you like the site when it goes up, let me know! I’ll forward you to Ian and he can customize something for you.
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Just a quick heads up: I have a show scheduled to start May 15, 2010 at the Bearclaw Gallery that I think many of you will really enjoy. Many, many new works are coming up!
I’ll have some information about a couple other galleries I’m talking with soon, and in the meantime, visit the Bearclaw and the Willock and Sax Gallery. There is always amazing art from a variety of diverse artists at both places. I’m always impressed when I take a visit.