wetland textures are meant to describe the conflict between memory and the reality of change. the images contain the presence of a before and the emotional darkness of now. the transition is not clear but distorted.

as a child i spent many hours paddling a canoe through the wetlands around the killarney area chasing carp and attempting to sneak up to ducks, loons and herrings – to no avail. i remember the decay of fallen trees, the channels created by beavers, many aquatic flowering plants, peat islands with shrubs and small spruce trees, willows and dogwood, migrating and nesting birds, turtles basking in the sun. i also remember some of these magical places stripped and replaced with summer houses, boats, and manicured lawns.

today, i watch as marginal farmland, typically wetlands, are cleared and drained to allow for a few acres of additional cultivation, shunting the many wildlife species to move on to ever fewer places to exist, or to vanish completely. i marvel at the logic of mining one of the world’s largest carbon sinks- the james bay and hudson bay lowlands- to produce materials for electric car batteries in the hope that we produce less carbon with our old gas powered vehicles.

wetland, marsh, swamp, peat bog, muskeg- there are many variations of this significant ecological zone. part land, part water, they support their own unique ecosystems while also protecting neighbouring systems. they are reservoirs of both water and wildlife, but they are considered marginal lands, and are often drained to make way for development- a few more acres for farmland, a new housing subdivision, or, on a massive scale, mining for lithium and other rare earth metals.