Paulette is a Contemporary Fibre Artist residing on Vancouver Island. The importance of her sense of place is illustrated by her focus on the Pacific Madrona or Arbutus Menziesii tree throughout her 25 years in fibre art.
StatementHow impressive to realize that Arbutus menziesii (Madrona) trees only grow in Canada on the British Columbia coast! Most humbling of all is that I lived among these trees. Waking up each day to see what changes these trees had for me ,seemingly overnight, was a constant source of fascination and inspiration for over two decades of my art. My excitement at being able to gather these leaves & bark , preserving while photographing and printing them on a variety of materials was the beginning, of the unusual part of my art practice. Actually it has become a totally different artistic path for me. Sewing the leaf details on; using my own text form; experimenting with a book format is all because of this beautiful ,imperfect , outlier tree . It has the courage to be different from any other tree in Canada! It continues to influence my art to this day.
