Jennifer Trefiak
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop Art
    • Soul Shine 2021/2022
    • Oil Sketches
    • Hiraeth
    • Home Series
    • Vast Lands Series
    • Earth & Sky
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • FAQ's

 Behind The Easel

Why camping is important to my art

10/18/2020

0 Comments

 
I have gone camping since I was a little girl. My parents used to take my sisters and I to Algonquin and we would camp in a canvas tent and do extraordinary hikes. It was much less common to camp back then, almost nobody had a tent trailer and there most certainly wasn't electricity or highways near the campgrounds. We also used to go to Presqu'ile and Sandbanks which always seemed so far away to me. The world is a much smaller place now in terms of travel.

We didn't have a lot of money growing up so these trips served as our vacations and I suppose those adventures seeped into my bones. I also like to think it was a way for my parents to connect us to our Indigenous heritage, in a time when to claim this was exposure for racism.

​My childhood was quite traumatic because my mother was very sick with an illness that doctor's couldn't identify. It took many years for the diagnosis of Addison's Disease to come but in the meantime, we girls were shuffled around and taken care of by our community so that my father could continue to work (often shift work) while my mother was in the hospital. There were whole summers and parts of the school year that we lived with my parent's friends or my extended family and often all three of us sisters were not in the same home at the same time. 

So, I think that camping was a refuge for my mom when she was healthy and also a way to bring us all together as a family in times where we were often separated. For me, it has been a refuge as well. The outdoors has always been a place I have gone to heal from trauma and pain but also to find happiness and peace. I used to speak to the trees and birds as a little girl and I felt they understood me and I them. Now, I paint the landscapes I travel to but I like to paint them as I feel them. Each place has its own spirit and they do whisper to you if you are still and listen. 

 - Jennifer

Picture

RSS Feed

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Jennifer Trefiak

    I will keep you updated on my latest work and perhaps some insight into my creative process.

    Categories

    All
    Abstract
    Addison's Disease
    AGN Spotlight Series 3
    Alderville
    Anishinabee
    Art
    Art Business
    Art Gallery Of Northumberland
    Art Materials
    Art Show
    BBC
    Billie Eilish
    Black
    Camping
    Canada
    Christmas
    Circle
    Climate Change
    Cobourg
    Colborne
    Cold
    Covid
    Covid 19
    Covid-19
    Crayola
    Damien Hirst
    David Newland
    December 8
    Donovan Leitch
    Facebook
    First Blog
    First Nations
    Flamenco
    Gamblin
    Gitchigumi
    Interview
    Kama Pigments
    Karen Manners
    Lake Superior
    Landscape Painting
    Miss Manners
    Mother Earth
    Music
    New
    New Year
    Northumberland
    Ontario
    Pukaskwa National Park
    Rebirth
    Red
    Sacred Water
    Snow
    Snowpocalypse
    Studio
    Studio Safety
    Teacher
    Technical Difficulties
    Themes
    Titles
    Untitled
    What Do Artists Do All DAy
    Woodlands Style
    Work In Progress

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    September 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    April 2019
    June 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    January 2016
    April 2015
    January 2015
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

Jennifer Trefiak Fine Art, Copyright 2023
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop Art
    • Soul Shine 2021/2022
    • Oil Sketches
    • Hiraeth
    • Home Series
    • Vast Lands Series
    • Earth & Sky
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • FAQ's