To someone who isn’t an artist, Megan Dulcie Dill’s art studio looks empty and paint-covered except for some canvases. However, it is where Dill’s inspiration tells stories, and that inspiration is taking her out to the Great Bear Rainforest.
“Fifty different artists from BC are going on a trip and will put together a book, a film and a travelling expedition,” said Dill, surrounded by her paintings of swimming salmon in their life cycles, a series she calls Stories of the Land. “We’ll be immersed in the area and come back with ideas
and stories and sketches.”
At the end of June, the group of artists will venture into the Great Bear Rainforest. Dill hopes to be inspired by the landscape so she can continue her painting series. She explained it as an opportunity for “further exploration of human interaction with the natural world.”
The whole project is meant to raise awareness of the beauty and ecological diversity of the rainforest in protest of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Those who oppose the project argue the terrain is too treacherous for oil tankers to navigate.
Dill said the pipeline and tankers would dramatically increase the risk of an oil spill. “I feel strongly for the community in the areas. As coastal people we are all connected. The effects on the environment if oil spilled, and the sounds tankers make underwater to the whales,
all those are affected.”
The resulting works will be published in a 160-page coffee-table book to be released by fall 2012. Dill hopes the book and film will persuade people to see the damage the pipeline could do.
On June 18, 12 artists and support people will fly to Bella Bella. They will explore the outer Goose Islets, Spider Islands or the McMullins, and the fjords of Mussel and Kynoch inlets. Artists will have only cameras, sketchbooks and some personal clothing. That trip ends on June 23 with the second group of 12 artists starting its trip on the same day. The third trip starts on June 30.
Throughout May and June, Dill will showcase her series around Powell River. The series is inspired by BC salmon and features creations she has been working on for the last few years. The exhibition will be displayed at Tree Frog Bistro and The Alchemist restaurant, as well as prints and postcards at Artique Artists’ Cooperative gallery. Dill is donating 20 per cent of painting sales “toward supporting tanker-free BC shores.”
