High River looks to nature for its art

The wolves carved into a tree stump next to the A-Plus convenience store in High River may be getting some company.

High River council recently heard from Lee Peckham about the idea of tree art in George Lane Park.

She got the idea after walking her dog in the park and seeing some trees being brought down.

"I though there's got to be something better that we can do with them and so I went home and I started researching just 'tree art' and I found very many examples across Canada of small towns and cities that are doing this, just beautiful carvings and I just thought we need to do that here, and I started talking to people, and more people and there's so many people on board now that it's just so exciting," she says.

Tree Art from Orangeville Ontario (photo supplied)

Peckham says two artists are already to go in the spring and there are a couple trees that would be appropriate.

"I do have one artist that is starting his piece, but he is a Banksy 2.0' he doesn't really want people to know who he is so I imagine he'll be in there at night and at times when there's very few people in the park,"

The other artist is Ron Schmidt who already has a couple of statues placed around town and has expressed an interest in doing some tree art.

Peckham says she's in the process of writing to get the trees included in the Town's art policy and has calls out to a couple tree carvers to find out what they use to seal their finished work and whether the trees need to stand and dry out before carving them.

Tree Art (photo supplied)

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says whenever he talks to representatives of the Stoney Nakoda Nation they point out the lack of indigenous artifacts in the park which holds great significance for them.

"That, hopefully we would have something in place by September 29th, 2024, the Truth and Reconciliation Day, so I'm just in the process of trying to track down a liaison with the Stoney Nakoda band and hopefully we can get going on that piece pretty quick, Peckham says.

It was suggested she approach the Community Vitality Advisory Committee for funding.
 

Tree Art outside a library (photo: supplied)

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