Indigenous artist, Jared Tait, was our artist in residence, August 12th -16th 2024. Community members were invited to participate in this community engagement art experience at the Haliburton School of Art + Design. Over 80 community members participated and learned about the woodland style of painting and Indigenous stories. Under the direction of Jared, community members painted the figures, on to the panels over the course of the week.
The central figure, Nanabush, stands high, in amongst the woodland creatures. This collection of figures represents the story of Nanabush and the owl. Nanabush had lost his connection between this world and the spiritual world. The owl saw him in his despair and offered his eyes to Nanabush so that he could find his way again. The yellow represents the colour of the owl's eyes and can be seen on all of the creatures. This story represents the gift the owl gave the to Anishinaabe people, to be able to see the connections.
The line work on all of the figures represents connections and the interconnectiveness of everything.
The animals in this installation are very common in all of Jared's art.
The kingfisher represents his grandmother and her clan. Jared used purple and lavender colours in this painting because his grandmother was always wearing purple. The circle in the centre of the kingfisher represents a wampum shell.
In the centre of the loon, the divied circle reperesnts the miigis shell, which people would wear on their necklaces or ceremonial outfits, honouring the connections. There are two halves on this shell which represent the duality of day and night, and the connectiveness of this world and the spiritual world.
The bear usually takes up a lot of space on Jared's canvases. It represents healing to Jared.
The beaver shaped the land for the people and they relied on the beaver for many things.