The Dancing With Trees Art Exhibition celebrates the importance of trees and forests throughout history, portraying their diversity and relationships with all life forms through a variety of creative associations. Twenty three of the paintings in this collection are on exhibit in the Steinhauer Trust Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, May 1st through June 30th, 2010, with the Opening Reception on Saturday May 1st, 12:45 – 4 p.m.
All life forms on this planet proliferated, continue to flourish, and ultimately depend on the existence of trees. While the message is urgent, artist Nikki Coulombe considers humanity’s role on the planet as positive, with the statement that creativity is our greatest asset; that “Our carbon footprint is worthy”. Further, creative thinking is our most primal, yet highly advanced and ever-evolving contribution toward solutions to healing wrongs done and changing ingrained habits to ones that are more appreciative of the environment in general.

A range of artistic expressions emphasize the character of this show, with the subject of trees as the binding influence. Paintings in acrylics, photography, an oil pastels series, watercolors, and mixed media pieces are inspired by travels throughout the United States and Canada, to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Australia. For a comprehensive view of the scope of this exhibition, an accompanying website functions as the foundation where all related concepts are organized. There, photography is compiled into sets, and the art is available to purchase online.

“We are all touched at some point by the beauty of trees, and their significance to the health of our home, the Earth. Regardless of sales, art needs to be seen, and I hope the appeal of at least a few pieces in this exhibition may cause some reflection.”
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Purchase Art here

Wisconsin May 1st – June 30th, 2010 paintings on exhibit here

Purchase Photography here

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A Renewable Mission: a personal account of how the Dancing With Trees Art Exhibition materialized over the course of seven years into a lifetime of work.

With ambitions to document trees in every way, shape and form, these activities are woven intimately with resettling, rebuilding and re-identifying the management of a career in Art.

A favorite neighborhood Oak tree grabs my attention every time I drive by. Pointing out all its perfections to my visiting niece, she yawned, “It’s just a tree, Auntie”. We were not seeing the same tree at all…

Until the exhibition premiered as The Majesty of Trees in June, 2009 at The Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina, I didn’t realize how large the collection had become. Not surprisingly, the gallery was only able to hang a portion of the work created for it. Sitting quietly the evening before opening, taking in the mood of the show and finally able to re-read the advertising fliers for it with an uncluttered mind, I reflected on how the exhibition concept had evolved into something so much more, and not just in terms of volume.

What did surprise me were the curator’s choices: they were strictly blue, green and brown paintings of trees. Then I remembered that two years before, the accepted proposal was presented that way; as more of a literal translation of the topic. Now, with a number of the key pieces excluded, this particular show did not prompt the free associations of trees I had hoped it would. It was clear that my updated perception of the the exhibition as a whole was probably going to be unclear to everyone else. The title, “The Majesty of Trees” suddenly seemed too restrictive, confining the viewers’ interpretations and also the liberty to express my own. Without representations of other aspects of trees and the creatures that depend on them, plus some of the conceptual pieces implying other relationships, there was a disconnect to the broader statements made, like “Our carbon footprint is worthy”. The writing now came across more as artsy-fartsy and a little spacey rather than genuine.

I was already questioning the ethics of the exhibition title too, since discovering one year after naming it that there is already a book published with the same title. I don’t do plagiarism. Having said that, just as I’m satisfied that the new name is original, what do I find but a website with the new name owned by a lady who offers tree climbing expeditions. Oh well, I’ll happily put in a plug for her business here, and The Majesty of Trees book too, hoping they don’t mind sharing the titles. Though our use of it and the websites are entirely different, we are all, in the end, on the same page.

Change…it’s the nature of this occupation, and of course life. Plan, work like there’s no tomorrow, experiment and be flexible, internalize a little discipline here and there, and at the same time: you’ve gotta go with the flow.

It’s said that obtaining success involves remaining true to ourselves, doing what we love, and being eager to devote every hour, every day of the week if we have to in order to reach our goals. I had a fun, successful business as a freelance artist before moving to the United States late in 2002, and my career intentionally took a new path here. I welcomed the freedom to paint whatever the heck I wanted. For about three years there were no obligations to work for others until receiving a Green Card. It was great to experiment uninhibited. That was the goal then: to produce.

While entering competitions and juried exhibitions, the inconsistency of styles, subject matter and odd mixture of results became more and more apparent. I planned to exhibit in galleries and had no clue what a competitive field this is, but did experience the irony of a firmly established protocol in this industry. I am not a hobbyist. Not to diminish the importance of that pursuit, but they are now my competition. For a while there I felt at an extreme disadvantage at not having focused on any one genre or medium. Although I thoroughly enjoy creating art every day and you could not stop me if you tried, the objective for my efforts is to earn a permanent living. Paid or not, to be truly successful, Art needs a purpose…and an artist needs a reason for being. You might say it was getting difficult to see the trees for the forest.

It was while driving back and forth to Canada a couple of times a year, first helping our sons resettle in the east, then visiting family in the west that my mission became obvious. The theme that would merge past, present and future together was growing alongside every highway. I also noticed: Oh, there are far more photos of trees than there are of relatives. Any time there’s an opportunity to travel, the first thing I think of is, “Yay! More trees!” It made perfect sense to focus that passion completely toward the production of art.

That evening before show-opening in Raleigh, with so much work intended for the show missing, it was not just the room that seemed empty. At the time I could not pinpoint the origins of those feelings. There are reasons why galleries have developed prerequisites. The curator explained why the pieces she chose were all so similar; partly because the space was very small. She reminded me that in galleries people expect a uniform, consistent style in a body of artwork that’s immediately recognizable as having been done by one artist. Her opinion was that people need to be told [if not in words then visually] what they are looking at. I got the logic, but not the emotions that seem to have opinions of their own. At the age of forty nine, maybe I was too old to start learning new tricks…

I have to say that the curator’s critiques were on-point, and a debt of thanks is in order. With Nancy Bethune’s direction, this experience was pivotal to improving the exhibition on the whole, and to growth toward my own potential. I’m grateful for her judgments. There are realities every artist needs to know about exhibiting art in order to do it right and do it better, and this was a whole new world for me. I completely understand the curator’s perspective too. Hanging a show is no different than painting; instead the art and walls are the paint composing the room. Composition and balance are the most important components in a painting as well, where chaos needs order and a pleasing overall rhythm of colors and shapes should capture viewers’ attention and keep it there.

If there’s one common thread in all of the Arts, it’s that problems and finding solutions to them is what creativity is all about. If there are no problems, then we gravitate toward making a few. Artists are prone to discouragement – mostly due to their own high expectations – not necessarily of others – primarily of themselves. However, it’s also an obsession to jump right back in, meet the challenge head-on, and begin again. The core of what we do is seeking ways to make limitations work in our favor, material and immaterial. We automatically start searching for some sort of compromise, and are accustomed to the cycles of downs and ups. Strangely, there’s a deceptive fairness about the physics of it all. However confused, an equivalent eureka is just around the corner, and pushing the boundaries is always worth it.

I had to come up with a way to open up a broader view of the show. It was also important to incorporate my background in freelance I decided, because even though it went against the norm, it’s vital for artists to find their own unique niche. Meanwhile,I try to focus on finding that niche as a painter, but the fact that I don’t restrict expressions to only paintings needs to be an advantage, not a stumbling block.

First to change was the title. The seven foot high signature piece for this show was the inspiration for the title, because corny as it sounds it really felt like the paintbrush and I were dancing on that canvas. Dancing With Trees finds me flitting about the forest using mixed-media with no particular place to be. With paintbrush in-hand I might marvel at the fungi or sit next to a monkey, then viewers can look at paintings of birds on branches and not have to ask (as a few people have already), “What have birds got to do with trees?”.

I firmly believe that we are all looking for something new, but we don’t know what we’re looking for. I don’t think we need to be told or what to think, or what exactly we are looking at. It’s an Artist’s job – no, there’s a sense of duty, (and we’re compelled anyway) to innovate; to generate new fads, fashion and new traditions, design better objects than those before us did, create a stir; to pull out the rug and open up the sky, make you cry, laugh, hate, question, love, or instigate any infinite number of reactions. It’s like there’s a code is embedded in an artist’s DNA to not do things the way they have already been done!

In the end we each have to decide what we feel is right for us. For now anyway, continuing to portray trees and aspects of trees in a variety of ways fits with how I need to work. I may never be a one trick pony, but what each piece of artwork here does have in common is that the process is all-important.

We are all creators in our own lives. The economy and the way folks do business is always changing, and we need to adapt. If there were ever a time when change at every level is necessary, it is now. None of us can rely on the way things have already been done. It means carving your own path in order to be successful. The Modern Age was built on creative thinking…not in ten or one thousand years, but ever since we first became curious about what stones could do when they were hit. The world would never be the same. Since then, change is in constant demand.

Every painter knows that we need to learn how to edit; what to put in, what to take out. For artists, the restraint that’s exercised must not only be in our methods creating art but also in presenting new ideas while staying respectful of the conventional reasoning that’s already in place. Our work ought to speak for us, and if it’s not effective enough, then as Jean Luc Picard starring in Star Trek said, “Make it so”.

If creating the work is only partially under our control (for who know where some of this stuff truly comes from?!), certainly once it leaves the studio it’s on its own. We can never determine what the responses will be. Describing the idea in as few words as possible, we can only anticipate that viewers feel beckoned toward it, free to feel or think whatever comes to mind or heart, even take it from there and embellish it, which would not be unusual.

The Steinhauer Trust Gallery at the Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum is a long fifty two by eight feet wide hallway leading to the auditorium, so the artwork chosen and the way it’s hung must take these parameters into consideration. Fortunately, there’s enough room for all of the major pieces except the chairs.

The reality this exhibition faces as time progresses, is that there is no existing gallery large enough to show it all, and one of the best ways to deal with that was to construct the website. What a perfect device, and how fortunate it is to be able to have this malleable medium as an integral part of the exhibition. I’m grateful to my husband and his unending patience teaching, and also for the basic design of all my websites. Also thanks to our sons for being available at a moment’s notice to help with issues constantly arising about computer codes and regular maintenance.

It’s pretty evident that the environmental and conservation causes in general are the prime motivating force behind this exhibition, and I’ve noticed a sort of human-bashing occurring over the years, and it’s time to reconsider the disfavor we do ourselves by not noticing. As for my role as artist in the bigger picture, if there is an agenda, it’s always going to be about hope. There are gentler and more pleasant ways to appeal to the masses effectively without being condescending to our own kind. We must hold ourselves accountable for wrongs done, but we live here alongside other life forms, and with regard to caring about anything else but ourselves, how can we change for the better if we believe we are forever guilty and never worthy?

Creative power is the excellence that humanity has to offer. We have come full circle in the sense that it plays a vital role in our present responsibilities toward our future, and possibly the existence of the living planet itself.

…our carbon footprint is worthy…

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Please direct emails to nikki_coulombe@hotmail.com

View more art and processes: nikkiartwork blog

More photography: Nikki’s Photography website