Local artist, Trish Smith has the honour of being selected for Nanaimo’s public art exhibition.
Her sculpture has been selected to beautify the waterfront area of Nanaimo and was recently installed in Mafeo Park to be part of a year-long exhibition.
Carved from a logged Douglas Fir in the Comox Valley which grew into a burl, the artwork has historical significance as evidence of the transitions occurring in British Columbia’s natural environment.
Paleo dentriticus grew from a stump of an ancient tree long gone, but still alive, on Vancouver Island. Not only is it a part of Vancouver Island’s natural heritage, but also an historic representation of our regional landscape as evidence of the logging era.
The Douglas fir was named for the Scottish botanist David Douglas who was sent by the Royal Horticultural Society to British Columbia to study the tree in the late 1700s.
“I recognize the value of our natural history which connects us not only with the past but also with the present through an affinity we can experience in this region’s natural environment,” said Smith.
“Figurative in nature, it’s natural form was left unaltered during the discovery of what lay beneath it’s outer layers as evidence of it’s transition from stump to a work of art.”