While canoeing and portaging in northeastern Ontario, Treaty 9 territory, I encounter clearcut logging and slash piles. I find this altered landscape devastating, sad; I am grief stricken. I am exploring the land and these feelings with my drawings.
I am using handmade peach pit ink to draw barren landscapes. The ink is rough and gritty. I choose peach pit ink to evoke grief and to infuse the work with medicine for grief. Peach, prunus persica, a cooling and calming herb, is used in the southern US for delivering bad news, and acute grief but also anger and agitation. “Peach cools agitated minds, they also remind us of sweetness and joy” says herbalist Janet Kent.
The drawings evoke burns, rocks, scared land, maps and topo lines. The black evokes grief and despair. Slash piles, clear-cut debris, and peach pits are all remainders — cast-offs, what is left behind. Maybe peach is the medicine we need to help us care for our scared land.