Sketchy!

Mama - In Progress
Ink and Graphite on Paper

Today I thought I'd share with you a work in progress. I draw, but rarely consider the drawings a finished work of art. I'm trying to overcome that self imposed bias. I'm thinking about adding a few washes of colour to this piece once the inking is complete.

In working on a few pieces like this lately Ive found I've had to let go of the crutch of colour and paint (which it really can become!) and rely on the concept, the learned skill of a steady hand and deliberate mark making. I've had to allow my idea to be stripped bare of it's multi-hued clothing and stand on it's own.

Creating art tends to draw my focus inward and I inevitably begin asking what other crutches I'm using in life, what other ways am I "dressing things up" so that I don't have to look at the stark truth.

Am I being honest enough? Am I being open enough?

It's in the the places we feel most vulnerable that we have the opportunity for the most growth so I welcome the questions. And, just like getting down to work on a drawing, I can get down to work on being more loving, supportive and giving to those around me, but even more importantly, to myself.

That's right! All the good qualities you want to share with other people, just heap them onto yourself. Give yourself patience, time, love, motivation and ALL that awesome good stuff.

If you're selfish with yourself, how can you be generous with others? Well, let's be honest- it all starts with you. Be healthy, happy, joyful and super cool. Then spread it around like Nutella.

Can you dig it?


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From the Archives

The Old Saint
Mixed Media on Canvas
2009

I painted this last year for a friend who really loves art, collects art and is just a good all round guy.

It's an old spiritual man, a saint, listening to the whisperings of the spirits of the land. In Old Europe, Christianity was pretty much the only option for spiritual expression, so I really respect these old saints who tried to do what good they were able in their time. They were deep thinkers, clear writers, and really did their best to peer past the world we take for granted to understand the wonder that connects it all.

In front of him lies an illuminated manuscript. As Stephen King has said, telepathy exists and we call it books. We can literally read the minds of those who wrote their thoughts out for us.

I believe everyone has something to offer. The problem is we think we have to be experts or create the Most Amazing Thing Ever! If everyone who put themselves out there thought that, we'd live in a truly desolate creative landscape.

Whatever you have to give, give it now. There's no better day to offer your gift than today, and whether the audience is great or small doesn't matter. The truth is, whatever you do will pass through the years, through the generations and one day just might be the thing that changes someone's life. We can never know what it will be or when it will happen.

So just create!

Offer what you can.

And let it go.



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For My Wife When We're Apart -part2

Gateway of the Sun
9" x 12"
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

I will fly to that star
Wings fall apart in the distance
Falling
Through to you
My gateway of the sun


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From the Collection of the Artist

Caleoni
14" x 18"
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

This was painted half in Hawaii and half in Canada. It was my first time being overseas and the experience of Oahu really touched me. My time there was very special for me and I came to understand something amazing. When I first arrived, I was struck by the sheer humidity of the air, the gentle feeling on my skin. As the days passed and I walked in the valleys and along the beaches, as I swam and soaked in the sun, I began to see the spirit of the land, the energy. I saw the underlying currents of the winds, the water, the rock and soil. The entire island came alive under my feet!

I couldn't delay. I bought paints, canvasses, supplies and sat in the hotel room every evening, painting away, the song of the island birds coming in through the vast windows.

I felt like a Black feathered Corvid out of my element and yet completely at home. A stranger in a strange and welcoming land.

My wife and I were talking about children, the possibility of a daughter. In that place of renewal and peace I imagined the child of our dreams, perhaps not this physical form represented, but I hope it captured the spiritual essence of what that child might be.

Since that time we have settled in at home and we are expecting a son. Perhaps that daughter is in the future, but for now, just knowing that a new little life is on it's way, feeling him dance and kick in her belly, fills me with a wonderful joy.


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Snow Snow Snow

Boreal Morning
12" x 16"
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

Life in the North is a different kind of thing. Where I am, we are just on the verge of the Great White Expanse. In my journeys up to the Northwest Territories and throughout Northern Alberta there is one thing I've come to understand and appreciate.

They make them different up here. Like a Raven we'll caw and complain but in the end, we get to work. We live through the mountains of snow and ice, we help dig out our neighbours, we still do our jobs and take care of our families.

Sometimes we'll get that far away look, that thousand yard stare, and everyone who lives here knows what it's like to get that need to go, to leave to walk away into the wilderness and never come back. I think it's the balance we have to strike between our animal nature and the demands of a modern life.

Yes, it's cold, people die of exposure, tips of ears or fingers can freeze away if you get caught in it, but it's also our blessing. We don't flood, we don't shake, we just freeze. And the spring always comes. Is it possible that one day, after we've wrecked it enough that it will all change? Of course. Maybe one year it will freeze and it will stay frozen. It's happened before to this earth of ours, and it can happen again.

So we do what we must. We recycle, we eat less, we waste less. or at least we try. Will it be enough?

This vast wilderness is our home, and looking out at the mountains of snow I feel a soft calm. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I know without a doubt that everything will be fine. We may have our long dark night, but out of the dawn we'll see the distance, the puff of breath in the cold air, and at last the sunrise.


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Moon Shadows and Stuff

Solstice in the New World
18" x 24"
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

This past December saw the Winter Solstice arrive with a bang: a full lunar eclipse. Here in Western Canada, it began before midnight and ended in the early morning hours. I stayed up to watch the event unfold, as did many others. We are far removed from the days when such phenomena were frightening and unexplained and that can lead us into a sense that such events are unimportant.

Just because we can explain a thing scientifically, however, does not mean that we understand it or that it is simply another event of slight interest only because it is remarked on by a few people on either side of the scientific or spiritual fringe.

In other words: just because you are not aware of the importance of an event doesn't mean it won't affect your life!

We live in a time where an astounding number of people are awakening to their own existence and seeing that there is a curable madness inherent in it. The sheer waste we produce, both physically and emotionally is changing the face of the planet. This solstice marks that awareness and even better, the will to do something about it.

Some people still believe that forcing others to their viewpoint will make for a better world for our children's children. Some people despair that nothing can be done anyway, so why get worked up about it? But some change themselves.

That's it. Some people change themselves.

It's really that simple. Behind all the fears, illusions, and defeats is one simple truth: to change the world, change yourself.

Speak more gently, speak your truth more clearly. Act in ways that are in keeping with your values. Like it or not, we are all responsible for the fate of our planet and for each other. We are all one tribe, one people, and turning our eyes away from the suffering our privileged lifestyles cause to our family in poorer countries only harms ourselves.

Be aware. That's how you change. Changing isn't a process of fighting yourself, of straining and stressing, it's simply awareness. Be aware and the change will come as naturally as breathing.

Be honest. Be aware.

As the Sun, Earth and moon aligned, so too can our thoughts, words and actions.

As the Solstice marked the end of the darkness, and as it was broken with the moon slipping out from shadow into light, so too can our lives be illuminated by the gift of awareness.

Solstice in the New World.

Pretty cool, huh?

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From the Art Gallery of Alberta's Travelling Exhibit: Halfbreed Mythology

The History of My People (Grandfathers)
Mixed Media
on Canvas
2009

This is another of the works currently traveling throughout Alberta. The show has been going for a bit more than a year and will continue for the next couple.

The works in this show tend to be a little more introspective and this is no exception. I tried to tackle a couple aspects of Canadian history here. The landscape is the coast of Newfoundland as it glides by the Nordic explorers who were searching ever further beyond Iceland, beyond Greenland, braving the oceans and the unknown.

Although L'Anse aux Meadows was a colossal failure as a diplomatic mission, it also marks what we can say is the first Euro settlement on First Nations land and the first contact with the Skrælings who inhabited the place. The birth of a new conflict, or the slow beginning of an eventual cooperation?

This is the reason for the iconic image of the prow of a longship stretching up beyond the upper edge of the canvas. A vessel containing Pandora's mysteries.

Below is a mythic Raven. One large all-seeing eye and two faces, representing both the worship and stories of Odin, the All-Father, and of the Trickster Raven. That there are so many similarities in these very disparate cultures has always been a source of fascination for me.

And below it all, a giant golden orb. The centre of the earth? A rising sun or moon in a starscape also serving as the water's depths, an indication that we are adrift, sailing through an endless ocean of time and space, held safe on a tiny, spinning planet? Or a portal through our limited awareness and understanding of each other?

The sidebars display the decorative, goldworked images of dragons or serpents, physical incarnations of unknown fears and dangers. The myth was that there were monsters beyond our ken, beyond our knowledge, beyond our borders. On ancient maps you find the phrase, "here be dragons". A statement serving as a warning to those who would dare journey out and further than our fears allow.

These dragons seem to stretch down, curling into a rising future: a Metis sash. A symbol of joining and blending together. The interlocking fibers and colours indicating an ability to set aside differences and work for the common good. A sash is awarded these days to people in the community who have offered outstanding service or have achieved something great. A mark of honour and representative of the best in all of us.

Through time and conflict and blood, we stand today together on this land, a vast array of personal and family and cultural histories leading us to this moment, our moment, our children's moments. Who we decide to be, what we decide to honour, what fears we choose to conquer - all these things will determine the world to come. We have inherited our world from our grandfathers with its many opportunities and challenges. How will we honour this?

And what will we leave for our grandchildren?


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More...

Equilibrium
24" x 36"
Mixed Media on Canvas
2009

Where do we find our balance? Is it in spirit, in the land, in fantasy, or in our experiences of work, play, joy and sorrow?

Is the goal to feast on life and welcome our experiences both happy and painful, or to reject these extremes and find that Middle Way? To eschew all desire and exist on a plane of meditation, contemplation and compassion?

Where is the best life and how do we find it?

To cease with doubts, but never with examination. To enjoy the show but to realize it is all shadow play. To find the passionate equilibrium.

A quick sketch...

I actually finished a new painting...

I'm not going to lie to you, it's been a rough little while. But the fact that I was able to finish a painting tells me that the arrows are beginning to point in the right direction again. Which is a huge relief. I have a couple deadlines that have passed and I've had nothing to show for it. Trust me, that's bad. So, with a fresh breath of air, and the ability to smile really big again, I give you the beginning of my own fresh start:

A New Season
2009

The snows are retreating, the icy wind blows a last time across the land, hair is whipped by the last gasp of winter's chill. The flowers begin to bloom and the long night has been replaced by the eternal day. Mother Earth watches it unfold in serenity and patience, knowing the flow of time is like a river that carves deep into our souls, digging deep channels of habit and forgetfulness if we are not aware of it. But the Old Crow, the Irascible Raven, that black bird who takes many forms, reminds us. He watches with an eye that he hopes seems disinterested but I see right through him. He watches me, you, all of us. Always curious, always wondering, what will these bright shiny things do next? As soon as we fall asleep he is there, beating wings of wind and fury.

"Wake Up!"

"Wake Up!" he cries, throat broken and urgent.

And we do, realizing that as we slept we lost something in the river. For a while we are dazed by our sleep, but when the fog clears we realize that we were dreaming in the wrong place. To dream while aware, that's the true power. Old Bird settles back down to watch again with his fierce eye. And Mother Earth watches softly.


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Halfbreed Mythology - An Art Gallery of Alberta Travelling Exhibit

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Down and Out - City Living
9" x 12"
Acrylic on Paper
2008

From the "Halfbreed Mythology" show guide:

As stated by Paul Smith, Aaron Paquette's paintings "illustrate moments of connection and conflict, both individual and communal". Such moments are perfectly expressed in the painting, 'Down and Out - City Living'. In this work Paquette connects with both his cultural heritage and the places, both emotional and physical, he finds himself in.

Paquette's heritage is expressed through the elements of the raven, the Norse snake, and the First Nation's decorative pattern in the foreground of the work.

The 'places' the artist finds himself in are also expressed in this painting. Aaron Paquette is an urban-dweller, and in this work the city is symbolised by the light standard and the graffiti wall. How the artist might feel about this place, and the situation faced by many First Nations/Metis peoples in the city, is movingly portrayed by the raven. Slumped in the foreground of the work, the raven is physically distanced from the symbols representing the city. The use of the complementary colours of orange and blue to separate these elements reinforces this physical distance and may reflect emotional dislocation as well. At present there are approximately 3000 homeless people in Edmonton alone, many of whom are of First Nations heritage. The figure of the raven, normally a powerful First Nations symbol, here sitting bedraggled and smoking a cigarette, functions as an evocative statement on this disturbing situation.

-thanks to Shane Golby

2008 and I'm already late

Raven Storm
24" x 36"
Mixed Media
on Canvas
2007

When I was 20, I drove into the mountains to stay for a while. On my way, I stopped off just outside of Hinton, finding an isolated place to sleep and fish. I just finished setting up camp when a strange sound started to spread through the shallow valley, getting louder and more confused by the moment. I walked out to shore and from around a bend came what seemed like hundreds of black ravens silhoutted against the glowing sky, screaming their crackling urgent song. It went on forever and like a cloud they passed by, rushing downriver. I always wondered what they were singing, and I wanted to take flight and find the mysterious end to their sunset journey.

White Raven Series

Ice Raven
24" x 30"
Mixed Media
on Canvas
2007

A comment from a friend on the White Raven series:

...the sense of blood and freshly frozen death that I feel fuels the bright bitter triumph, reaches for the promise of warmth in the yellow star as sun-seed, and wants to speak through the pink and mauve of the pinions.

Put another way: imagine the painting on the ground at midnight, a dead, dessicated white bird caught in a pool of ice, the moon reflecting just so an inch beyond its beak.

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Your comments?

Keeper of the Sun
Mixed Media
on Paper
2007

After he flew off he began to realize something was different. He was burning! This was not the cool, milky feeling of the silver moon but a searing, penetrating, scorching fire. There was something else, though. As he nurtured the yellow sun to his chest, he could feel Something was waking up inside him, and that whatever it was, it could wake up the entire world to it's first awareness, it's first dawn.

He beat his strong wings and flew higher, cawing exultation to the stars.

Cravefish
27cm x 35cm
Mixed Media
on Paper

Part scavenger, part hunter, all craft and cunning, the Cravefish swims the deeps looking for an easy meal or a chance to outwit the trusting with one of his schemes. But the sun...up above, shining so compellingly bright...an irresistible pull draws the Cravefish higher and higher out of the black water below to the mystery beyond.

Moonrise
18" x 14"
Mixed Media
on Canvas

2007

Nothing so simple as Moonrise

Nothing so normal as trees
Nothing so common as starlight
Or the scent of wild flowers
You, and the hours
We've spent in the warm summer breeze

Yes, we've spent in the warm summer breeze
You, and the hours
The scent of wild flowers
Nothing so common as starlight
Nothing so normal as trees
Nothing so simple as Moonrise

Thanks to Everyone who came out! It was great to meet so many amazing people. The gallery was absolutely alive with your energy.

Deep In The Winter Wood

24" x 40"
Mixed Media
on Canvas

2007

Once Upon a Time, this is how it was. It was just like this...Snow covered the rolling hills, a cool blanket over a sleeping companion. The night was alive with the twinkling crystal air, and the naked trees stretched out silvery limbs to the hard, unblinking gaze of a thousand thousand stars, appearing closer than they had ever been before, perhaps seeking refuge from the yawning emptiness of the eternal void, perhaps forgetting that the emptiness was their mother and father both. Perhaps just lonely on such a silent night. The moon was just climbing over the edge of the world when silently, on padded toes, Rabbit stepped out of the darkness, and at almost the same time, Raven shuffled into the light.

Raven had kept his Dreamer, or perhaps it was the other way around. Nevertheless, he was looking two places at once, as Ravens do, while Rabbit kept his silence. After all, it was his very own to keep.

It was the subject of his life, tonight, of which he was not entirely certain. Still, he had come, deep in a winter wood, silent but for the Raven's rasp. The breath of a talker, a forager, a scavenger.

The sussuration of a predator's song.

But Rabbit had something else in store tonight. A surprise.

Drumbeat
3' x 4'
Mixed Media
on Canvas

2007

Our hearts are locked inside us, safe, beating away the minutes like the determined sound of a deep, dark drum. The warrior takes his heart out of his chest. It is touched by the air, by the sun, by snow and rain. Anyone who passes by can reach out and touch the warrior's heart. It is sensitive and vulnerable, and can easily feel the soft brush of tears. It beats to the song of creation, and all who pass by can feel it in their bodies, their own heart responding , aligning, and breathing with that implacable rhythm. It is fierce and active and filled with fire.

The raven attacks the open heart at the same time as he protects it, caught between entropy and the growth of new stories, new moments, untold and unfinished lives. There are new worlds forming, called into being by the unstoppable heart...and raven, the carrion eater, will do as he must, and bring them light.

Burning Up

1 inch x 1 inch and a bit
Mixed Media on
Watercolour Paper
2007

I had a lot of fun painting this one. You're seeing it about 4 or 5 times its original size. For some of it, I was reduced to using a single hair on the brush. As you can imagine, my face was right up to the painting the entire time. When I stopped working on it, there was a space of about 30 seconds when I couldn't focus on anything past a couple feet.

Part of my Red Raven series, this piece carries a similar theme to the other works, which -luckily!- you can find in the archives from about September 2006 on.

Also, just another reminder that my solo show at the Bearclaw Gallery comes up on the 3rd of March. If you're in the area, I invite you to stop by and say hello!

Skyblue
September 2006

Nightfire
September 2006