Chris Cavan —Rooted to the Sky - theHumm February 2022

By Sally Hansen

Art… and Soul

Almonte artist Chris Cavan’s exuberant watercolour paintings are a testament to the essential role that trees play in her creativity and overall wellbeing. Trees have sustained and inspired her since she was a young girl, and dominate her art, her poetry and her writings. On the advice of Almonte “Energizer Bunny” and fellow artist Neil Carleton, Chris compiled an extensive binder of her art, photographs and original writings to accompany her recent art exhibit at the Corridor Gallery at the Almonte Public Library. In it she writes, “Trees ground me and keep me rooted to this sweet earth. They also make my spirits soar with the winged ones who sing so joyously from their lofty perches.”

In return, Cavan celebrates them in paintings that glow with an emotional intensity that reflects her connection to her subject. In recent years, she has begun to “use more impressionistic techniques and let the shapes emerge into my daydream.” She is also branching out by creating exuberant collages. She describes her creative process thus: “I escape my surroundings by submitting to the enchantment of painting. This letting go is a transformative, meditative state that allows me to deeply reflect on nature. The spirits of old, gnarly trees appear, and after spending a couple of hours with these wise friends, I am created anew. It is truly re-creation for me.”

Like Canada’s renowned tree champion Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger, Cavan traces her ancestry to Celtic-Druidic roots and wonders if this contributes to their shared compulsion to “speak for the trees.” She dedicates her aforementioned binder to her: “Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a world recognized author, medical biochemist, botanist and climate change visionary. She possesses a unique understanding of modern western science and ancient Celtic knowledge. Orphaned in Ireland in her youth, Beresford-Kroeger was educated by her Irish elders who instructed her in the Brehon knowledge of plants and nature… In the 1970s Diana started her own arboretum and collected trees from all over the world. She discovered the importance of mother trees at the heart of the forest and she scientifically proved that trees are a living library of medicine that have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world… Diana’s Bioplan… encourages ordinary people to develop a new relationship with nature, to join together to replant the global forest… This plan was adopted by the city of Ottawa.” dianaberesford-kroeger.com/about-diana .

Cavan is growing her binder into a book comprising portraits of her paintings, her photographs, and original poems and meditations. Titled Rooted to the Sky, it is her homage to trees — her lifelong companions and source of meditative and artistic inspiration.

There is no doubt that Chris Cavan is an eco-activist. Like Beresford-Krueger, David Attenborough, Humm columnist Susie Osler and many of this publication’s readers, she creates art in many forms not just for her own “re-creation”, but to promote awareness and stimulate action to protect the trees that nurture us. “Biophilia” is the term popularized by Edward O. Wilson in his 1986 book of the same title to describe what he believed is humanity’s innate affinity for the natural world. He also spoke for the trees — he is quoted as saying that destroying a rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal. As of yet, there is no noun that describes an individual who recognizes how tightly the wellbeing of our species is connected to our relationship with and the health of the natural world. There should be, so theHumm bravely goes forth and proposes “biophile”.

A true Valley girl from Arnprior, Chris always loved nature, being outdoors, and art. She took art lessons as a kid, did lots of art with her own kids, and became serious about her painting twenty years ago when her family responsibilities lessened. After moving to Almonte seven years ago, she joined The Centre for Creative Living at St. Paul’s Anglican Church and is currently a member of both the Off the Wall Art Circle and the Creative Writing Circle, where she is working on Rooted to the Sky. Is it coincidence that the Church’s icon is a “tree that supports the branches of hospitality… reflection… and social justice”?

It is not surprising that Cavan is currently taking two online writing courses. She has had a fascinating and challenging teaching career that was only possible because she is a lifelong learner. After considering nursing and journalism, she majored in English and then completed her B. Ed. at Queen’s University, taught in Pembroke, got married and started a family. She taught for over thirty years, originally teaching mostly high school English, but eventually teaching every grade from Grade 2 to adults. As her children got older, she transitioned to teaching ESL/ELD (English as a Second Language/English Literacy Development) in response to a large influx of newcomers to Canada. Over 7,000 Somalis alone resettled in Ottawa in the 1990s, and Chris met many of these courageous, disrupted families as well as people from all over Africa, East Asia and the Middle East. For many, language was the first and most difficult barrier to overcome in their new home (the cold weather was the second).

Her experience of teaching traumatized, culturally isolated, even pre-literate (no written language) young adults fourteen to twenty years old, “taught me about courage, the will to go on and start again… They showed me through their stories how lucky we are as Canadians… never take our freedom, democracy, rights as a woman, any rights at all… for granted. The experience brought the world to me. Those young people taught me way more than I ever taught them…”

Like many other artists profiled in this arts paper, Chris Cavan is delighted with her decision to join the arts-friendly Almonte community. As she notes, and I second, “Everyone I know loves Almonte!” Until pandemic restrictions are finally unnecessary, Chris relies on social media and word of mouth to share her art. She recently participated in an online, week-long retreat titled 7 Days of Rest & Sacred Renewal, dedicated to the healing and thriving of Earth and all her inhabitants. Her contribution will be posted at 7days-of-rest.org in the coming weeks, where you can enjoy her presentation and see her inspiring paintings and written meditations. To schedule an appointment to meet her and see her artworks in person, please check the back of her Artist Trading Card for her coordinates.