Her brush follows her heart

OLGA LIVSHIN

"My paintings are the diary of my life," said Lone Tratt, a well-known Vancouver artist. On Dec. 11, her solo exhibition, Celebration, opened at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

Tratt grew up in Denmark. Immersed in visual arts since childhood, she took her first art lessons when she was nine. At 18, she knew she wanted to become a professional artist. At 22, after finishing her apprenticeship with a local architectural firm, she decided to travel. "I planned to go to Canada, then to the United States, then to Israel, to live in a kibbutz for a while, and from there back to Denmark," she recalled.

Life interfered. Soon after she arrived in Vancouver, her first destination, she landed a job as an interior designer. She has been living in Canada ever since. "I was the second interior designer on the West Coast, a pioneer in the field here," she confessed proudly.

After her marriage, she moved to Montreal, where she studied printmaking for four years. "All the major painters were printmakers," she said, explaining her choice. "It's a beautiful art. Pablo Picasso was a printmaker and Paul Klee and Henri Matisse."

In 1990, Tratt returned to Vancouver and soon after opened a print shop on Granville Island. She also began teaching printmaking and painting, which she continues doing to this day. All through the different stages of her life, she has kept on painting.

It wasn't always easy, especially after she developed rheumatoid arthritis, which often cripples its victims. "There were days when I couldn't dress myself because of the pain," she recalled. "I couldn't hold the brush." It was an immense stress for the artist's body and soul, but she wouldn't give up. Intent on regaining her mobility, she fought the nasty disease the way her father fought the Nazis during his days in the resistance: with determination and courage and unflappable belief in victory. Indomitable despite her slight physical frame, Tratt put her art on the line. And she won. Even though her joints still trouble her, and she often has to paint using wrist braces, she creates vibrant, life-affirming paintings, full of vitality and fierce joy of living.

Her pictures are always color-conscious, reflecting her moods. During the darkest period of her life, when her illness progressed relentlessly, exacerbated by upheaval in her personal relationship, Tratt began painting British Columbia's majestic forests, dark and brooding but permeated with hidden strength. There were faces in the gigantic tree trunks, and grim spirits peeked from among the branches, catching the scant sunlight. During that time, she painted several outdoor murals. One of them still decorates the western wall of Choices in Kitsilano.

Facing the parking lot, the 70-by-14-feet mural resembles a huge window into the old woods, magically transported into the heart of the city by the artist's touch.

When the illness retreated and Tratt's usual optimism reasserted itself, brighter colors found their way back into her palette. Flowers sparkling with bright energy replaced the stoic trees. Infused with the power and drive of the new millennium, the current exhibition in the Zack gallery presents the distinct "after trees" period of the artist's creative journey.

Two color-conscious currents of self-expression reflect Tratt's innermost ups and downs on the walls of the gallery. On the ups, she paints huge flowers, their petals like flying carpets, flopping in the breeze, sailing towards mystical lands of the corporeal and fantastical. And she invites everyone to join her celebration of life, to partake in her reverence in nature.

"My goal is to reveal the hidden beauty in everyday life," she writes in her artistic statement. "I want my paintings to be practical metaphors for a new way of feeling and living in the world."

Melody seems to thrum in her paintings together with the gleaming hues of love and earth. In "Showing Off," the scarlet poppy shows off its plentiful seeds like a proud mother. Peach and pink and gold flow like soaring notes of a concerto in "Gladiola." And a multihued orchid in "Dance" reminds viewers of Spanish passion, swirling skirts and ringing castanets.

A series of four paintings with the same name "Harmony" reverberate with copper, bronze and carmine, reminiscent of sexuality and kisses. The warm colors and fluid lines of the paintings provoke the contemplation of fertility, inciting the promise of mating. Another flower, "Come Inside," delights everyone with its coquettish petals and brazen stamens. Love shimmers in the air, interlaced with the artist's luminescent silhouettes.

Although many people comment on the similarity between Tratt and Georgia O'Keefe, the resemblance is superficial, and the comparison makes Tratt unhappy. "I didn't try to emulate O'Keefe, or anyone else," she said. Her paintings come from the heart, from the deep well of her artistic emotions.

When sadness enters her life, the colors and images of her paintings change as well. The process is unconscious: her brush simply follows her heart. That's why, when a period of blues swamped the artist, she created a series of fantastic birds, blue and white and a little melancholy. Their white petals-wings, the color of purity and clouds, underscore the metaphysical core of love, the all-encompassing search for balance and the secrets of flying. Rapport and understanding unite the viewers with the paintings. "Breathtaking," said one of the entrances in the guest book.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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