Territories

Northwest Territories by minouette

I got a really interesting message from a customer this week. After purchasing my Northwest Territories and Nunavut linocuts, he let me know why. The Collège André Malraux de Granville in France has created an 'artothèque' (great word no? like a bibliothèque or library, except for art) on the theme of territories. They've gathered art from 13 artists from France, Algeria, Canada and Ukraine. My prints will be representing Canada!

I love that my prints are making their way in to some institutional collections and the idea of international artists representing what 'territories' mean to them is fascinating. I'd love to see what else they've purchased.

Nunavut by minouette

Canada: 10 provinces, 3 territories and their symbols

 
A couple of people asked whether I could print my series of province and territory linocuts on one giant pieace of paper. I was thinking that a book might be a better format. You see, the provinces are not at all printed to scale (and may even have some variations in projection). I made this decision consciously. You see, the smallest province PEI is 5,660 km² whereas Nunavut, the largest of either province or territory is  2,038,722 km²- that is a bit more than 360 times as large. So, unless I was making art for a very very large space indeed, and could make prints in tens of square metres, I would never be able to acheive enough detail in the smaller provinces. However, it is possible to digitally place all the images side by side, and with a little Photoshop magic, you can see all of Canada. The pieces don't match perfectly; but, between inprecision in my carving, and variations from map to map (of scale, resolutions and maybe even projection) it's a pretty good fit.

Nunavut, rock ptarmigan and purple saxifrage

The symbols of Nunavut, its territorial symbols the rock ptarmigan and purple saxifrage flowers cover the hand-carved map of Nunavut in this linocut. The block was inked 'à la poupée' (with different colours, lavendar, beige, black and red, in different areas) and printed by hand on lovely Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. Each print is 23.5 cm by 31.8 cm (9.25" by 12.5"). The print is one of an edition of seven.

Canada's most recent territory, Nunavut (from the Inuktitut : ᓄᓇᕗᑦ ˈnunavut, for 'our land') which separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 (though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993), includes all the islands in Hudson's Bay not specifically claimed by Ontario or Quebec, so I've included the boundary of Hudson's Bay and James Bay.

How wonderful are the words 'ptarmigan' and 'saxifrage'? I mean how many 'pt...' words do you know? I can think of pterodactyl and Ptah (the Egyptian god). Saxifrage apparently comes from the rock-breaking nature of this tundra and alpin-dweller, but I think it just sounds cool. Also, who could resist the male rock ptarmigan's extravagent scarlet eyelashes eye combs?

the Yukon

The symbols of the Yukon, its official bird, the Raven and its flower, fireweed cover the hand-carved map of the Yukon in this linocut. The block was inked 'à la poupée' (with different colours, pink-magenta and black in different areas) and printed by hand on lovely Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. Each print is 23.5 cm by 31.8 cm (9.25" by 12.5"). The print is one of a variable edition of six.

This is the latest in the series. I have two provinces to go (PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador) but I moved on to my first territory, with great symbols. Ravens are such marvellous birds and I've long loved the bright cheerful fireweed, the common first flower after any forest fire.