THE TREE PROJECT: A PASSION OF THREE For artists, Carol Kapuscinsky, Mee Ae Song, and Judith Welbourn, expressing their personal experiences through artistic means was the key to The Tree Project - a collaborative exhibition featuring twenty-two works examining one of the most significant living plant forms found in the world. From memory and history, mysticism and spirituality, The Tree Project is all encompassing in its scope and depth and the passion demonstrated by the artists for their subject matter and what it represents to each of them. The serenity, for example, that Kapuscinsky feels in the presence of her subject is reflected in large oil-on-canvas depictions using rich but quiet glazes of colour with three or four thin layers at a time. "Being close to a tree is a very comforting experience," explains the Ajax artist, for whom the significance of the tree traces back to her childhood when she first read the poem Trees by Joyce Kilmer. For The Tree Project, Kapuscinsky leads the viewer on a journey along Lake Ontario to experience the trees she has observed close to home. In preparation for creating her works, the artist utilizes both still photography and video to capture not only the visual components but also the sounds and mood of the experience. Kapuscinsky then brings this raw footage to her studio to work from. The Tree Project is the first painting show in Canada for Korean-born Toronto artist Mee Ae Song, who has long been a collector of tree drawings by her friends. Working in mixed media, Song focuses on the rings and roots of a tree as she intertwines their history with the lives of different friends, interpreting the impression she had from these individuals and their lives. "The tree shows the element of the person", she says, using the rings and roots as an allegory to reflect the inner being. Like trees, people, too, have outside appearances that can differ greatly from what they are like within, she adds. Similarly, Song uses tree roots to symbolize the connection between individuals and the unique characteristics each brings to a relationship. In one depiction, for example, the view is from above and illustrates hand-like roots protruding and supporting each other. As with the other works in The Tree Project, Judith Welbourn imbues symbolism but on a level that makes use of and demonstrates her extensive research - taking place over a period of many months - into her subject matter. By her own admission, Welbourn is "always rummaging around in mythology and spirituality" and for this exhibition, immersed herself in the study of the tree and its use as a metaphor. The resulting series of five panel works incorporates facets of the research in an interpretation that is as layered and creatively complex as the traditional method of printmaking, using woodcut relief techniques on hand made gampi paper, chosen by the artist. The panels are placed edge to edge and each panel has a right and a left side as one would see in looking at pages - still referred to in modern lexicon as leaves - in an open book. Religious symbols, icons, Druid and Celtic symbols, not to mention components of various trees themselves, figure prominently in Welbourn's works, in addition to the five elements said to embody the Tree of Life or World Tree: air, earth, water, fire and the key to the greatest of mysteries. Through different eyes and different feelings, the three artists successfully convey their curiosity, awe and respect for the tree. Exhibition Catalogue MariAnne Kazmer The Station Gallery The Tree Project October 2003