Throughout my life I have been drawn to beauty. In the silence of the woods or in my childhood home, experiencing a deep connection to a weeping willow tree I’d climb into hiding and pray in, at the age of six.  The form and function of what grew in the ground, hidden and circling around inside its trunk for many years, becomes the rings of a tree and determines my subject matter. The makers of plywood take slices from a cross section down the length of a tree or they unwind the scrolled rings of a tree’s life via a blade.  The blades measurement calculates too regularly what life does not measure in the same way.  So that the sameness of a human’s gauge at 1/8th to 1/40th of an inch finds the unevenness of life’s growth in the irregular pattern of its yearly ring’s.

I wash acrylic paint into the depths of this measure of plywood panel. I become transfixed in the way the paint is absorbed into its fibers at varying levels, creating inside herself, images deeper to the eye, creating an almost 3D effect.  Every species and piece of wood is different, like us. Its living fiber accepts paint contingent on the hardness or softness of her grain. More images are possible as a result of transparent paint layers soaking in and as I follow the grains and wash the paint into the wood’s pores or interstices, the context of the imagery that emerges is contemplated.  The finding is a spontaneous instinctive process. I enjoy finding and painting two or three images at one time, connecting smaller images within one larger one.  The imagery keeps growing in this way from the random way the wood drinks in the paint, and is one of the reasons why the viewer keeps seeing more, sometimes even beyond what I’ve painted. 

“For the Cree, the phenomenon of mamatowan refers not just to the self but to the being in connection with happenings. It also recognizes that other life forms manifest the creative force in the context of the knower. It is an experience in context, a subjective experience that, for the knower, becomes knowledge in itself. The experience is knowledge.” Willie Ermine

It is from this naivety and trust of the universe that I have wont to explore the potential in 'what is' or ‘what could be’. This form of creation is a meandering trust that seeks the known in the unknown, like the way a seed in the wind, finds its earth and takes root. I see in the patterns of the tree’s life, images similar to dreamscapes, and symbols of ancient cultural significance. What transpires from this process is like dreams from the subconscious or a spiritual universe, as I keep finding images that become symbols that evolve into stories. These images or symbols in the larger context of meaning and understanding, I interpret into poetry, within an Anishinabe or natural world continuum. My wonder into this co-opted creation is born into poetry from a place that wants to make sense of where I’ve been lost, with this being, who prompts me and teaches me from the inside out.

“Mamatowisowin defines the methodology used in a quest for vision, where the seeker/artist begins to explore his/her own existence subjectively. By placing ones self into a direct stream of consciousness, the seeker/ the knower / the artist will begin to unfold a greater, inherent understanding of self, by utilizing the methodologies of Mamatowisowin.” Willie Ermine, Cree Scholar; First Nations Education in Canada ; The Circle Unfolds

What emerges in the end, is always a surprise; an evolution into the surreal, a conundrum of the human experience, a subconscious dream, a confluence of imagery that flash through my mind in knots and waves, a surface of a living memory resurfaced and shared on two planes: my intangible mind overlays a tangible painted surface to the tree’s life. The high gloss polyurethane and epoxy resin finish afterwards, allows a deeper look inside into the ply depths of images as they become more pronounced. This allows the light to shine deep within its heartwood where it glows and comes alive, from the inside out, showing the warmth and life of the wood. It is my intention to create work, that invites reflection, that deepens one’s awareness to the mystery and beauty of life, to remember her beauty even in plywood through this vibrant aesthetic and a respect for healing our earth Mother and ourselves through her. 

“Process of self actualization… In their quest to find meaning in the outer space, Aboriginal people turned to the inner space. This inner space is that universe of being within each person that is synonymous with the soul, the spirit, the self, or the being. The priceless core within each of us and the processes of touching that essence is …. called inwardness.” Willie Ermine; Cree Scholar

                  "I know it inside. "

                LAURALEE K. HARRIS

LauraLee K. Harris draws from her Mixed Blood Anishinabe ancestry which originated in Winnipeg as Sioux, Cree, Chipewyan, Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Assiniboine and Montagnais/French from her Mother and Irish/English from her Father.

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