Strathcona Park

Haven't posted here in a while....here's a link to what I have been busy with!

Origamic Architecture

Origami is an art & craft form that has always fascinated me. I have made countless cranes, but also frogs, turtles, fish, elephants, koalas, whales, even a pterodactyl mobile.

Other than animals, the most common 3-dimensional origami forms are boxes, flowers, vases, and other functional items.



At one point many years ago, during my various crafting experiments, I discovered an art that combined my various interests in 3D forms – origamic architecture!

Origamic architecture may remind you of children’s pop-up cards but it can be extremely sophisticated and intricate.

The masters of this art as you might expect are from Japan. Professor Masahiro Chatani is considered to be the creator, combining techniques of origami (paper-folding) & kirigami (paper-cutting).

Templates are available on-line for many of the designs. Creating the piece is a meditative process as it involves much patience and precision.



If you want to give it a try, begin as I did with some simple designs from Baud & Bui . At the other extreme are these amazing creations from a Netherlands paper architect/artist .


Most of the cards that I made were sold through a craft shop, and I now have only a couple remaining as a reminder of one of my craft obsessions.

Triangular Photography

Some of my most successful photos share a similar composition – arranging the points of interest in the photo in a triangular arrangement.

In ‘Blue Heron, Golden Evening’ the shapes of two prominent distant mountains is repeated by the branch in the water, each forming a point of interest, with the third and primary point of interest additionally accentuated by the heron silhouette.



In ‘Hairtrigger Lake and Albert Edward’, not only is the shape of Mount Albert Edward juxtaposed with its opposite in shape & colour, Mount Regan (a beautiful natural partnership!) but the third main point of interest - the pyramidal rock in the lake - is evocative of another mountain in miniature. There are other triangular relationships within the photo: the counterpoints of the dark shapes of the trees and their reflection in the lake for example.

The viewer’s eye is carried from point to point of interest giving an otherwise peaceful scene the energy of implied movement.

Triangular composition is related to the well-known ‘Golden Section’ proportions of classical Greece. Leonardo da Vinci also described these ideal proportions in terms of the human body.

Nature's Totems

Seeing dead tree trunks in a bog recently started me thinking about how much Pacific Northwest totems were inspired by these natural sculptures.









Pacific Northwest totems have long been a subject of historical & artistic study. These monumental sculptures carved mostly from western red cedar decay eventually in the rainforest environment. Few examples of poles carved before 1900 exist, but 18th century accounts of European explorers along the coast indicate that poles certainly existed prior to 1800, though smaller and few in number. Totem pole development is thought to have progressed from house posts, funerary containers, and memorial markers into symbols of clan and family wealth and prestige. Pole construction is thought to have centered around the Haida people of Haida Gwaii and spread to the Tsimshian & Tlingit, then down the coast of BC to northern Washington.



However I haven’t seen much written about the origins of the art in terms of its inspiration and derivation from natural sources. On a recent trip to Malcolm Island off north Vancouver Island where the hypermaritime climate encourages the growth of hemlock, spruce and cedar, I began to see the connection between natural sculptures and the indigenous art form.




The second-growth forest of Malcolm Island is interspersed with pockets of acidic bog punctuated by dead trees. Swamps, marshes & bogs are full of these snags many of which have fantastical shapes. It takes just a small stretch of imagination to begin to see animal faces and figures in the naturally sculpted forms. Protrusions and holes would easily become inspiration for carving. The snags would have an animistic presence when seen in the mists that are characteristic of the Pacific Northwest.

Volcano Sculpture

The recent eruptions of the Icelandic volcano Eyafjallajokull have resulted in some stunning imagery of this spectacular phenomenon, in both video and still photography.






For a nature photographer a visit to the site would be an ultimate experience - but often the most stunning artistic creations are produced in the most extreme and dangerous natural situations.






In Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, the Kilauea volcano which has been flowing to the sea since 1983 has attracted people to attempt sculptures with the molten lava. Years ago I recall seeing video of a sculptor wearing asbestos gloves while shaping the liquid rock into heads reminiscent of Easter Island figures, but haven't been able to find a link. Underwater lava sculptor, Bud Turpin, has attempted shaping active lava flows on numerous dives on active lava flow off the Big island.

One of my favourite artists, environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, collaborates with nature to make his creations. Among his works are references to the powerful beauty of natural phenomena such as lava pools.

Barn Owl Box Architecture

Since the Easter long weekend, I have been watching live video footage from inside a barn owl nest box in San Marcos, California, & am completely hooked on this 'reality tv' show!

This family of barn owls includes the female Molly, the male McGee, and four owlets, who are becoming more famous every day via interviews on TV & with schools across the US.

The owl box is located on the one-acre property of Carlos & Donna Royal. There is a wealth of extremely fascinating information on their website about the barn owls.

Of particular interest to me is the design of the owl box installed for the Royals by Tom Stephan.

When I first saw the footage from inside the owl box, the video was zoomed in appearing to show a simple box construction. As the owlets have grown, the daytime camera has been zoomed out, showing the sloped (shed) roofs, at the sides - but also showing that the centre of the roof is raised up. An outside video cam now shows the entire box at night as well.

The style is similar to a traditional barn style, often used for horse barns, called a Monitor Style Barn.

In the case of barns, the elevated roof in the centre allows for additional storage, natural light & ventilation.

In the case of the owl box, you can see on the video that there is a continuous gap between the sloped roofs & the walls at the lower level, and also presumably at the higher (monitor) level. This design would allow for ventilation of the box without the operable openings that a regular barn might have.

In the on-line comments that accompany the live video, there is frequent discussion about the possibility of overheating inside the box. Since the location is California, the daytime temperatures have been reaching 24C and will get even warmer before the owlets fledge & leave the box toward the end of May.

Fortunately, the clever design of the box will allow for a cooling flow-through of air: since heat rises, air entering from the entry opening of the box (on the front right hand side) will flow through the box, up & out through the gaps below the roof.

The monitor style roof in architecture has been used for industrial, residential & public buildings. In warm countries such as Singapore and Australia this style provides natural ventilation & cooling without any mechanical aids.