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Nature-Art grows at elementary school

Mentorship sets seeds for creativity
Janet May

From kale sprouts in the vegetable garden to buds on the willow igloo, James Thomson Elementary School yard buzzes with spring.

Discover-Imagine-Grow-Schoolyard (DIGS) has a new project growing with the season: un-officially named Tichum—edge of the forest, it aims to bring a natural landscape closer to the school.

Dots of orange spray paint mark where pillars will stand, rooted in the asphalt. As artist Megan Dulcie Dill describes her vision of three-dimensional nature-art she fills the courtyard with rooted stumps, nurse logs, planter boxes and animal footprints. On one wall Dulcie Dill has sketched the beginnings of a forest and a circle which will hold a larger than life-sized wooden spindle. Heiltsuk First Nation artist Ivan Rosypskye is carving the spindle, a traditional tool for spinning wool, from yellow cedar.

The DIGS Master Plan includes space for creative play as well as a quiet place near the mural. The asphalt will be decorated with footprints of local animals. Each class will create and paint a set of footprints.

Last month Tla’amin Nation elder John Louie blessed the mural wall, the wood for carving and the two artists in front of students, teachers and Tla’amin community members. Senior students were given cedar boughs to brush the wood.

The project enables students to watch and interact with the artists. “Ivan is slowing down the carving process so that the students can work in it,” explained Dulcie Dill. “He is showing them that there is a human-ness behind these things and that they can be a part of it.” The school could just buy and install a spindle, said Dulcie Dill, but this project demonstrates the time that goes into art and the quality. “This is where our kids go to school. Everyone together makes it who we are.” The courtyard space will reflect the energy of the people who work and play there.

Dulcie Dill remembers spending time making art with her granny and she relishes the opportunity to share time with the students. On the mat in front of the mural, grade one Chloe Johnson diligently sketches a hummingbird. “I love art,” said Chloe. “It is my favourite thing. I always want to make something new.”

Rosypskye chose to carve a spindle out of respect for the Salish traditional craft and he based the design on one that was found in this area. In the afternoons he sits under a canopy near the mural wall and carves; sometimes he is helped by a pair of students. “Mostly I am teaching the students how not to cut themselves and how to hold the knife,” he said, humbly. But the twinkle in his eye shows that there is more to it than that. Rosypskye worked on an earlier carving project at the school. “I meet kids who worked with me on the canoe project and they remember me. I feel that my work here is very powerful.”

Like raindrop ripples on a pond, DIGS projects overlap with each other and extend into the greater community. Filmmaker Claudia Medina and Rosypskye have applied through Tla’amin community to be part of a pilot project for aboriginal youth pursuing a career in the arts that was launched by the First People’s Cultural Council. If successful, Rosypskye will be mentoring Gary Gonzales while carving the spindle whorl. Similarly, Medina will be using the school mural project to mentor Devin Pielle in the use of film equipment and editing so that Pielle can create her own film. Medina is documenting the mural and installation as it grows in the schoolyard and will create a short film about the entire project.