Art for wilderness' sake

Page 27

Late last month, artists who paint, write poetry, sing or "put on performing pieces" gathered in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park and at the Sawridge Hotel in Slave Lake to do their bit for the boreal forest.

Organized by the three-year-old Alberta branch of the Western Wilderness Committee, based in Vancouver, the retreat is the third annual.

Artists' creations from the five days are donated to the committee. This year's pieces will be premiered at The Works visual arts festival in Edmonton in mid-June. They will then be used by the public education side of the committee in schools and other places.

Pieces from the previous two retreats - at the committee's research station on the Peace River west of Fort Vermilion and at Nordegg - are currently on loan to Alberta Culture for their travelling displays. They have been shown at international conferences, in galleries, and parks, anywhere that the committee thinks will create greater public awareness.

"Slave Lake is an industry town, so we hope to get better integration and variety in the experience this year," says artist retreat co-ordinator Gail Perrin.

The focus for environmental issues must be forward-looking," she says. "We're not trying to get back to somewhere in the past. We're trying to show the intricacies of the problem. It's not just a black-and-white issue with an easy solution like 'log or don't log.' Every environmental issue is something of a balancing act between various competing interests."

The boreal forest covers most of Alberta (is also known "as taiga"), and is characterized by thin soil; black and white spruce in the matured areas; frequent snow cover and prevalent bogs. There is a limited variety of wildlife and most of the forest's activity is in the ground, as opposed to the canopy, or tree tops, as in a tropical forest.