~ by Gloria Lorenzen
Artists are constantly taking journeys; of mind, spirit, heart, or
body. They travel far into the colours of a bird's feathers or along an
avenue in Paris. Then through their artistic work they invite us to
see something new through their eyes.
Rene Deerheart, a Cowichan Valley artist, merges her journeys
into her multi-media assemblages and carvings. She has explored
mountain tops in the Himalayas and climbed down into the depths
of the Grand Canyon. She’s travelled along endless aisles of thrift
stores and wandered along Hawaiian and Ucluclet beaches at
low tide. She's explored her thoughts while sitting on her porch
watching the clouds passing, listening to the wind in the tall
trees surrounding her home. Rene, the gatherer is always open
to receive what shows up. But she also says, "I'm selective about
what speaks to me." While she interprets two of her favourite
assemblages to me the once ordinary items incorporated into the
piece take on new identities. They are transformed. Maybe Rene is
part alchemist, too.
Two studios sit on her wooded property. One, for carving, was the original car garage. She extended it with
walls and a ceiling of pine tongue and grove. It’s a rough, earthy place that looks and smells like a carpenter's
workroom; piles of wood, rows of carving tools hanging on the wall and a chain saw on a low shelf.
The second studio, recently built, is mainly for her assemblage work. "Assemblage is not compatible with
sawdust," she says. Inside it's serene, elegant, filled with daylight from tall windows and skylights. It's beautiful
and restful. Her hand-carved wooden bowls resting on tabletops are filled with small silver shapes, a selection
of wooden beads, and delicate bleached bones. On a ledge, beside a tambourine, a pair of old worn cowboy boots
stand next to a metal Chinese checker board. High above, on a tall cupboard, a pair of exotic-looking fake leopard platform shoes
poses next to an Ashford spinning wheel. There is so much to see, to touch, to explore, and amazingly, it doesn't feel cluttered.
"I'm very efficient with storage and I'm more discerning now," she says about her acquisitions.
There are toys that flash and spin, pots of flowers that dance, "I'm such a child," she says. Rene loves pop-up books, too.
Perhaps it's about being endlessly surprised. Like arriving at the peak of a mountain and seeing the view for the first time or
scanning her eyes over a shelf in a thrift store early one morning and discovering a treasure. Or simply watching the flowers
in her garden and catching a glint of colour that she carries back into her studio. Rene creates art with what's all around her, it's limitless.
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