My fascination with the texture of trees started when I moved to Vancouver Island five years ago from Calgary, AB. Being a city girl from the prairies, living in a small town on the Island is very different. Where the sky is the dominant natural element on the prairies, for me, trees are the dominant element here. Trees in the prairie city are individuals. They are planted purposefully to be the showcase of a lawn or to bring emphasis to a park. Even in parks each tree is seen as an individual, placed so that each tree is noticed – a dark coniferous against a lemon-lime hued deciduous.
On Vancouver Island individual trees stand out for me where farmers have cleared fields for crops. As a prairie girl I love these scenes. They give my eye a chance to run and stretch. In between the fields small groups of individual trees can be seen. These lone trees give an exclamation mark for my eye to finally rest.
The texture of trees as a forest is apparent when looking at the hills and mountains. The softness of the trees is like velvet draped on the rock. But the texture that inspired me to start this jewelry series is seen when you leave the roads and venture into the trees. Walking through a forest it is a saturation of texture.