Reflection

There is a maze of trails in the area I live that mountain bikers call The Vortex. Once you go in, you may not find your way out.  In this place, just outside the City of Courtenay, the coal and logging industries have come and gone.  The forest is growing and recovering.

In among young stands of trees one may see, odd rusted abandoned pieces of metal, an old railway grade, moss covered entrances to mine shafts, or an illegally dumped mattress.  Besides ravens, crows and the odd Barred Owl, you may hear motorbikes or gunshots coming from the Fish and Game club.

In this area there are also a few wetlands, sometimes created by a local busy beaver.  Surrounded by a non-descript, second-growth forest, these swampy areas have surprising beauty and host a variety of wildlife.  They have nesting sites for woodpeckers or fishing spots for kingfishers or herons, hunting areas for owls and water for ducks.

In the hot days of summer, the air around these wetlands is refreshingly cooler.  During a drought, they hold water like a sponge, a gift for the surrounding forest.  They are the birthplace of creeks that flow through the city on their way to the ocean, like Morrison Creek, one of the most productive fish creeks on Vancouver Island, and home to a species not found anywhere else in the world: the Morrison Creek lamprey.

I feel like I could hang out at these spots for hours to watch wildlife and stare at the reflections.  Usually, I only spend only a couple minutes, because I need to keep up with the gang on a mountain bike ride.  Sometimes I take a picture.  When the water is flat and clear it gives you a reverse image of the surrounding forest and sky.  Looking into the water I like to imagine the reflection is a mirror world.  What if I could just step into the limitless expanse and onto the clouds?

When creating this painting I thought about how easily reflections can fool the eye – a reflection looks real but is not the thing itself.  Which is why I thought that a reflection in a pond could also be a metaphor for the imagination we all possess.  Our ability to dream, envision and reflect can help us get through our sometimes difficult or confusing, day-to-day lives.  This gift of imagination we all have is like a blue, life-filled wetland hidden within the trails of the Vortex.

The way we experience the world around us is a direct reflection of the world within.  Gabrielle Bernstein

Watch a CBC video about the Morrison Creek lamprey HERE.