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Feb. 29, 2008
Creative sparks alight
The forest inspires sculptor and photographer.
OLGA LIVSHIN
Two Vancouver artists and friends – photographer Janet Lee and sculptor Bessie Luteyn – seek their creative sparks deep inside the woods, hidden behind the leaves and bark, in the hearts of trees or secreted on the forest floor among the roots. Their art exhibit, Hidden in the Forest, is now at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery.
Versatile and inquisitive, Lee has tried her hands at many endeavors. Since 1973, she has been a co-owner of an environmental consulting company. During her work hours, she draws maps, devises layouts and generally manages graphic components of her company's projects.
Lee said her artistic nature has always struggled to get free of the formulaic confines of her job. In an attempt to fuse her blooming imagination with dry technology, she started experimenting with digital imagery and conventional art forms. She has become well known in Vancouver as one of the participants of Artists in Our Midst. Exploring different creative paths, she produces whimsical digital collages, mixed media paintings, paper sculptures, book covers, business cards, posters and CD covers.
"I have combined photographic images of the woodland groundcover, shrub layer and tree canopy to give ... the sense of a walk through a forested West Coast.... Faces are woven with the photographs to hint at the spiritual nature of woodlands," she said in her artistic statement for the current exhibition.
Many of her collages seem to have an inherent melody. "Because both my daughters are involved in the music industry," she said, smiling, "all the faces on the collages belong to musicians, singers and dancers."
"Blue Elderberry" blends a woodland motif with a young, playful woman with blue hair. The picture exudes merry rhythm, and no wonder, for its heroine is a percussionist. "Old Man's Beard" shows an older man, a guitar player, and the lichen in the forest part of the collage spurs thoughts of wisdom and soulful string tunes. "Bitter Cherry" evokes a mystical, languorous song, performed by an enigmatic Oriental singer, while "Coastal Fire Willow" resonates with chords that hint at space travels, constellations and cosmonauts.
Every collage has its own theme, but all of them represent the artist's discoveries of the forest's hidden nature, the emotional subtext interwoven with roots and foliage.
"Forests are not static," Lee mused. "Human spirits are hiding inside every tree and bush. When you walk in the woods next time, look for them. A mundane forest would burst alive and magical."
Lee met Luteyn in 1992, when they both participated in Artists in Our Midst. They became friends.
Unlike Lee, Luteyn could never stay with one job for long. Elusive like her wooden sculptures, Luteyn tried many occupations. She was a social worker and a real estate representative, a fund-raiser and a menial laborer. She dabbled in small business ventures as well, opening the first Canadian Europe Home Exchange bureau and, later, Vancouver's first bed and breakfast.
In the arts, Luteyn has also delved into different areas, continually challenging the limits of her talent. A self-described socialist and a freethinker, she has participated in several Vancouver Fringe festivals, writing and producing plays. She has written poetry and humorous essays. She has played violin and drums and she has made concrete sculptures, exhibited at many Vancouver galleries.
"As soon as I master a new skill, I lose interest in it," she said. "I always want to try something unfamiliar, something I don't know how to do yet." In 1994, she found her latest passion – wooden sculptures – when she went for a walk in Pacific Spirit Park.
An oddly shaped piece of deadwood attracted her attention and she picked it up to see what marvels were hidden inside the ugly, decomposing limb. That moment influenced her life for many years. She learned woodworking on her own, by trial and error. Stuffed with hand tools, the tiny studio in her garage resembles a carpenter's workshop of the Middle Ages. The only electric equipment she uses is a sander.
"I'm a sculptor," she explained. "I take a dead branch or a decaying root from the forest, clean it up and remove the unnecessary material. I never know what the outcome would be." If the end result satisfies Luteyn, it becomes a unique sculpture, revealing its particular grain, shape and mood. If not, it goes back to the forest to continue its decay and nourish the next generation of trees.
Luteyn's sculptures don't have names, only numbers. "I don't wish to restrict my viewers' imagination," she said. "Everyone can see different things in my abstract pieces, just like in the living forest." "Wood #1" resembles a wave or a sprite, curious and roguish. "Wood #3" looks like a singing pipe, with its mouth wide open. "Wood #7" represents a squiggly joke, while "Wood #2" has strong scientific connotations. The pieces are small and intimate, radiating not only the artist's love for the forest and its concealed treasures but also her vast sense of humor. Previously hidden in the forest, they now offer joy and peace to every visitor of the gallery.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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