Panorama

A series of fourteen 20”x30” pencil crayon and soft pastel drawings on black Stonehenge paper, installed as a single row measuring 35 feet wide and 20” tall.

Panorama was inspired by the comings and goings of my own back yard over time. This drawing is in a way about all of the layers of life and memories that are connected to a space over many years - wildlife, plant life, and even the decaying retaining wall.

My yard is a little metaphor of the natural world.

My studio looks into my back yard. It is a long rectangular space with railway ties built into the hillside, creating a 5 foot high retaining wall that I need a ladder to access. My yard is the same shape and format as most of my neighbours’, however mine is the only one fully fenced with a line of trees providing almost complete privacy from the housing complex on the hill behind us.

My immediate neighbours don’t have pets and they don’t use their yards much. I on the other hand am out there constantly with my dog day and night, and our little backyard outings are sometimes quite the adventure. My favourite time to be outside is at night because of all the activities in the space but also just behind it.

At the back of my property line there is a sort of corridor where local wildlife travel through the neighbourhood, safely away from the traffic. Often they meander into the secluded area of my cedar fences. It has turned into a bit of a safe haven for raccoons who quickly climb the giant cedars to avoid the coyotes and often take long naps. I’ve also encountered skunks, owls, bats, and of course skittish cats who are attracted to the rodents all around the neighbourhood. There is a particular coyote who has an injured back leg that now and then ends up on the lower part of the yard, so I keep an eye out for him and never just let my dog out on her own. One year the wind blew over one of our trees, the sound was incredible (and of course my thoughts were that the animals now had one less tree to sleep in). I have learnt of bears in the area, one just on the other side of my fence and several have walked through the front yard – even stopping at my front door to drink from my bird bath.

A few years back we bought security cameras for our home, mostly to track the front of our house. We bought a set of 8 cameras, so the spares were set up in the back yard and I suppose this is what got me thinking about wildlife cameras and our sometimes invasive spying in the first place.

I love the haunting infrared lighting of the night camera captures - even just watching the footage of the plants moving in the breeze at night. It speaks of a world that is familiar yet foreign, dreamlike but also accessible. I love that I can be part of the life force that is my back yard.

All of nature is connected and this little space tells some of natures’ story.