Fishy Tales.....mission (almost) complete. I was going to do the blog thing but haven't had internet access (or a drink!) for over a week (fantasy football team has suffered!!). I had an idea to blog away day by day about what's been happening with this project here in Canada...but it hasn't been possible. Sooo, instead I'll give a brief background to why we are in North West Territories and throw in a bunch of photos which will help tell the story. For the past week myself, Gavin Renwick and Paul Harrison, both artists from Dundee, have been working in a Dene (First Nation) Community of about 100 folk. The place is called Trout Lake. The reason for our being there was to set up and build a fully functioning Print Workshop, that will become a sustainable resource for the people living in the town, and also to identify individuals that would be able to take on the day to day running of the facility after we had left. Getting back to the fish! Trout lake.....it's a huge lake full of Trout... massive trout... and other types of fish, including huge pike which are like wee sharks! If you look through the photos you'll see some of the smaller pike that we caught...these fellas helped us out with one of the printmaking demonstrations in the workshop; a form of Japanese printing called 'Gyotaku'....fish printing!! We thought this would be a perfect way to introduce printmaking into Trout Lake. Trout lake is a canny tricky place to get to during the summer months, the only way in is to fly....in a tiny plane!! So all the supplies needed for the workshop were crammed on this plane, including the press. This press is the only one of it's kind in the whole of North West Territories (NWT) and the Workshop it now takes pride of place in is the only one of it's kind in NWT, which is fitting as Trout lake is a unique community where; the people have maintained a traditional existence, living of the land, balancing their traditions with the modern world....in a nut shell they choose and pick what aspects of outside influence they want. And because of this they are regarded as probably one of the best examples of a functioning First Nation community in North America. The people living there are very engaged in what they think should be the best way forward for their society...with only the minimum of interference from Government and development. So...I'll finish up by saying Trout lake has been a wonderful experience ... already looking forward to coming back to work more with the folk in the workshop Thank you
Fishy Tales.....mission (almost) complete.
For the past week myself, Gavin Renwick and Paul Harrison, both artists from Dundee, have been working in a Dene (First Nation) Community of about 100 folk. The place is called Trout Lake. The reason for our being there was to set up and build a fully functioning Print Workshop, that will become a sustainable resource for the people living in the town, and also to identify individuals that would be able to take on the day to day running of the facility after we had left.
Getting back to the fish! Trout lake.....it's a huge lake full of Trout... massive trout... and other types of fish, including huge pike which are like wee sharks! These fellas helped us out with one of the printmaking demonstrations in the workshop; a form of Japanese printing called 'Gyotaku'....fish printing!! We thought this would be a perfect way to introduce printmaking into Trout Lake.
So after going out on the lake and catching some 'volenteers' for our print demo, we demonstrated Gyotaku to members of the community who came to the class. It went down very well with everyone involved, they were already discussing how this technique could be developed into a resource for visiting fishermen, who come from far a field to fish the Lake.
Trout lake is a canny tricky place to get to during the summer months, the only way in is to fly....in a tiny plane!! So all the supplies needed for the workshop were crammed on this plane, including the press. This press is the only one of it's kind in the whole of North West Territories (NWT) and the Workshop it now takes pride of place in is the only one of it's kind in NWT, which is fitting as Trout lake is a unique community where; the people have maintained a traditional existence, living of the land, balancing their traditions with the modern world....in a nut shell they choose and pick what aspects of outside influence they want. And because of this they are regarded as probably one of the best examples of a functioning First Nation community in North America. The people living there are very engaged in what they think should be the best way forward for their society...with only the minimum of interference from Government and development.
So...I'll finish up by saying Trout Lake has been a wonderful experience ... already looking forward to returning to work more with the folk in the workshop. If your interested to know more, I'll be updating this site with more images and info in the near future.
Thank you
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