River Study #1

My photo montage work is made of multiple images arranged symmetrically into patterns. The images have a geometric quality, and reflectiveness that causes the viewer to delve in and decode the images to discover the sources. The work emerged from an interest in sacred geometry and the understanding that the sacred, and the geometric language of it, was originally a language used by women and exclusive to them. I use geometric figurations to study the world and pay homage to the beauty I see in it. These pieces emerged from a week spent wandering forests and alpine meadows in the Muskwa Kechika Wilderness Area, a pristine wild area in northeastern British Columbia during the summer of 2006. I was able to spend days tramping, drawing, collecting images, on my belly with my lens in the lichen. The work was created that fall and winter in my studio in Dawson Creek, BC.Barbara Swail was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. The nomadic life characterized her first years – by age 40 she had lived in fifty different places across Canada. Photography and painting have been constants throughout, supported by a career in media and communications. Swail attended the Media Arts Program at Capilano College in North Vancouver, BC and spent two years in the undergraduate program at Emily Carr College of Art and Design. She currently resides in the Peace River region of northeast BC with two cats and her partner in their hand-built dome home. Her work has been shown across Canada and is included in several private collections