MOOSE JAW — Royal Canadian Air Force planes, sacred First Nations teachings and birds connected to Moose Jaw are three subjects that artists plan to carve or paint into dead trees in Crescent Park.
City hall and the Crescent Park Foundation — with support from the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery — announced recently that Karen Watson, Sadi Rose Vaxvick and Carly Jaye Smith were selected for this year’s Crescent Park Tree Art Project.
This initiative, which began in 2016, seeks to give artists the chance to create art from recycled tree stumps. This year, 11 trees in Crescent Park have been cut down into workable stumps.
During its Aug. 12 regular meeting, city council unanimously approved the foundation’s 2024 Tree Art Project request to install the three artworks in the park. Further, council agreed that the foundation would fund all the costs for the artworks, city administration would draft an installation and maintenance agreement and the mayor and city clerk would sign the agreement.
The overall request came from the public art committee, which recommended that council accept the project.
RCAF 100th birthday
Watson — who has contributed to the tree project before — plans to celebrate the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) 100th birthday with her project, a council report said. The project committee chose her project because it paid homage to 431 (Snowbirds) Air Demonstration Squadron, which is familiar to Moose Javians.
“In Karen’s vision, she will capture two Snowbirds in a spiral formation with human silhouettes underneath and a Snowbird logo carved into the trunk,” the document stated.
Watson, a resident of Moose Jaw, is a self-taught artist with a passion for sculpting realistic forms in wood and clay. She performed her first carving in 2017 while working with her father and her passion grew from there.
Over the past few years, she has carved several projects on residential properties, such as a soldier, eagle, horse head and peacock. Her first carving in Crescent Park was in 2021, titled “The History of the Band Festival.”
Sacred animals
Vaxvick submitted two proposals to the committee that conveyed “the spirit of Moose Jaw’s diverse past, present and future,” while they also marked the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treat Four, the report said.
The committee selected Vaxvick’s seven sacred grandfather teachings initiative, which connects to her Aboriginal heritage since she is Nehiyaw and Saulteaux and is registered with Ochapowace reserve.
The seven sacred grandfather teachings include love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility and truth, with animals representing each characteristic — eagle, bison, bear, raven, beaver, wolf and turtle, respectively — carved into the tree.
“(Vaxvick) has chosen to wrap a continuous long braided sweetgrass around the tree to separate the animals that have a connection to the land,” the report said. “Sweetgrass has three strands that represent mind, body and spirit.”
The artist also plans to add coloured stains to complete the artwork, which will bring out the natural wood grains and protect them long-term.
Birds of the park
Smith, a self-taught artist from Moose Jaw, has created most of her work downtown and contributed to that area’s walking art project, the report said. She has painted works on benches, garbage bins, glass windows and clothing, while she has also created murals that grace buildings such as Palliser Regional Library and the Chamber of Commerce.
Smith’s works are colourful, while she will paint her tree in pop-art style that will make a great addition to the park, the document continued. She submitted two proposals, with the committee choosing one that focused on the various bird species in Crescent Park.
The artists have already begun carving their projects and should be completed by September, the report added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Aug. 26.
