Carbon Trees + Mother Line
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
49° 56’ 52” N 119° 29’ 53” W
Carbon Trees + Mother Line 2025
The proposed work, Carbon Trees + Mother Line 2025 (CT+ML 2025), is a series composed of 18 or more large-format mixed media pieces, supported by sculptural maquettes and prints.
This series began with an encounter in a wildfire-burned forest not far from my home, where I collected blackened charred wood and began working directly with the charcoal. That initial gesture turned into 15 small paintings I carried with me to Finland in 2024—gifted to family members whose stories echo my own.
Work on the series continues with elements of wildfire charcoal trees with glyph imagery. It’s not focused on a single material or subject, but instead works conceptually with thresholds—between what’s visible and invisible, between intentions and matter. I’ve come to think of it as an exploration of a kind of metaphysical zone between manifest and the un-manifest.
The “Mother Line” is an abstract notion of a place where I can always find the memory of my mother, after her passing - the outline of trees against the sky. This imaginary line separating what is - the trees / manifest - and what is to come - the sky / the un-manifest. Abstract and poetic this line is a working metaphor for transformation, awareness, and the moment between what is and what will be.
The series draws on Finnish minimalism and symbolic language, as well as Sami traditions, Taoist philosophy, and the practical insight I bring from a lifetime in design. There’s no didactic intention—I'm not offering a narrative so much as an invitation. The patterns of invented glyphs and marks suggest meaning but don’t impose it. I hope viewers will take with them this notion - that awareness brings about matter, their own personal reality and outcomes.
My practice now integrates 48 years of spatial and compositional training as a building and urban designer and artist. I've shifted that focus entirely toward visual art. With formal training from OCAD and Emily Carr, and decades of professional design drawing behind me, I’m applying these skills in a more reflective context. These works are still about systems and relationships—just less literal.
Production of the CT+ML 2025 works is underway. Planned are;18+ major paintings ranging in size up to 1.5m x 3m as well as smaller print-based and sculptural studies. Materials include acrylic, oil, charcoal, mylar, wood panel, and hand-carved stamps on paper, canvas and board. Manual drafting tools for layout and composition of glyphs design remain visible in finished work, acting as foil to the painterly brush work.
The long-term vision includes developing this body of work for international presentation, specifically in Finland. I am establishing new relationships with curators and gallerists there to present a larger iteration of CT+ML (2027) possibly including new collaborative components with Sami artists and cultural practitioners.
I work independently and am responsible for all production - with assistance for framing and installation. My studio is efficient, and my schedule is disciplined. I document my work regularly and have a process in place for tracking development and exhibition readiness.
Beyond the formal aspects, this work comes from a need to reconcile internal and external change. The landscape I live in—burned and re-growing—reflects that. The passing of time, of people, of certainty: this work sits with those themes and tries not to explain them away.
This project is not about warning or advocacy; it’s quieter than that. It asks: what do we think and what comes next? What remains? What becomes visible when we contemplate in the spac between? What is hidden from view?
About
Details
Using charcoal tree trunk from a wildfire in Kelowna 2023 for creation of mixed media paintings.
Carbon Trees + Mother Line
Mixed media - charcoal, ink, graphite, water colour paint on archival paper - vellum and mylar
Sizes of each piece to be updated to each corresponding work… soon
Size range
40 cm x 56 cm
56 cm x 76 cm
200 cm x 91 cm
2024 & 2025
Artwork
Steve Huculiak