Sewn Into the Land
My Colonialism Piece
This is my piece that addresses colonialism, which was a project assigned to the Grade 12 students. It depicts the road to Tofino and speaks to the often forgotten Indigenous history of that land.
Out of all the art pieces I've done this year, I believe that this was the hardest. Not that it was the hardest to paint but that it was the hardest to generate a concept for. I knew that I had strong feelings about the subject of colonialism and its effects on the Indigenous community but I was scared about making a mistake. I worried that I would paint from a perspective that wasn't mine or tell a story that wasn't mine to share. After a lot of thought, something came to mind.
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In recent years, during the summer, my family and I travel up to Tofino to vacation. Above are some photos of our time there. It is a beautiful place to spend the week and we really enjoyed our time there. The summer after the news of residential schools being discovered across Canada, I noticed something on our drive to Tofino. As you drive by Port Alberni, you can see small orange shirts hung on different tree branches and signs. It wasn’t until the moment I first saw those that I researched the Indigenous history in Tofino. Years ago, the Alberni residential school was held in Port Alberni. The memory of seeing the orange shirts and learning of the land’s history has stayed in my mind ever since.
Instead of telling the story of the victims and survivors of that school, I would use the project to shed light on what they went through there. To make sure it is not forgotten and gone unnoticed.
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I implore whoever is reading this to research the residential school and look into its history. It’s important to learn about this painful part of Canadian history.
https://thechildrenremembered.ca/school-histories/alberni/
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The Idea
My design concept was to have a blurred drive to Tofino. To demonstrate the idea of colonialism, with orange string. I wanted to sew a small orange shirt into the canvas. Then, to show how history is woven into the land, I would have the string continue through the leaves towards the road. This would also show the car getting closer to the sight of the residential school with the string leading that way.
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My Process
To the right are some digital sketches I did of the concept for the piece. I drew them on my usual app called OneNote. Unfortunately, I didn't have any of my own photos of the drive up to Tofino. Due to this, I took a photo off the internet and based my painting on it. ​
After choosing the base painting, I drew a rough idea of what I wanted to do with the string.
One thing you should know about me I that I hate painting nature. I'm not sure what it is but the extra detailed work of foliage, leaves, and bleh. I really hate it. This is weird because I like detailed paintings of faces or objects. Just not nature. As you can already tell, this project was a struggle for me.
In the beginning, I tried to go very detailed with the trees. I started by painting a base layer of shades of green. Then I went back in with smaller details. I looked at it and right away knew I didn't like it. the color scheme was very off and the details looked childish.
I don't have a photo of when I tried the small details, but here is the base layer.
I was grateful for the opportunity to workshop this piece in a crit with my art class because it helped me take the painting in a new direction. After hearing the idea from my classmates, I decided to paint it the opposite of very detailed. I chose a blurred look that resembles how it would look to be looking out a car window as you drive by something. I also knew I wanted to go with a darker color pallette to better showcase the tone of the subject.
Painting the Road and Forest
To accomplish this blurred vision of a car ride, I used multiple layers of acrylic paint mixed with gloss to achieve the blur effect. The gloss allowed me to distort the paint. I started by blocking out large amounts of paint onto the canvas and then taking a thick square paintbrush with gloss and smearing it from left to right.
Below are some photos of my process. The last photo is not the finalized background design as the road slightly changes. You can see that in the next photos with the sewing.
Sewing in the Orange String
After finishing the background came the part that would speak to the effect of colonialism. Using the orange string, I sewed a small orange shirt onto the forest part of the painting. Just like the ones that may still hang on the side of the road. Then I carried little stitches down to the actual road and covered the beginning part of it with the string. This represents how the history of the Alberni residential school is a part of, almost woven, into the land. Even though history may forget it, it never disappears. I made a stylistic choice to make it thicker as the road gets closer to the end to show how the road leads to the residential school. The road carries the viewer as it does for anyone who takes that road.
Below is the photo of my process for sewing. The last couple of photos shows the final product and zoomed-in pictures of the work.
