Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Chelsea Smith

In the Dark of the Night Into the Woods We go

"In the Dark of the Night Into the Woods We Go" was one of the first paintings in the 'All My Relations' series that really spoke to me. I used charcoal from my grandmothers fireplace that I hand ground and processed myself bringing me to a feeling of closeness with her despite being kilometres apart at the time. I used beeswax local to my hometown in Northern Ontario as the binder, all materials used were ones found within my homeplace. Titles are lines from a piece I wrote while creating the 'All My Relations' series.

“The notions of my homeplace, family, and my family’s heritage with a core concept of “all my relations” are the driving forces in my work. Through the use of natural materials such as rocks and soil from my homeplace I am rediscovering and strengthening my connections to ancestors and land. ”