When I first visited the studio of Burnaby artist Tamera Olsen, and stood surrounded by her bold, intense images, I immediately connected with their energy and the story they portrayed.
In early 2004, her partner’s work moved Olsen and their young family from their native Pacific north west coastal environs, to what she terms “the radical, unforgiving landscape” and water starved environment of the Arizona high dessert.
The artist found herself afflicted with a deep homesickness, a kind of soul sickness, known in 18th century medicine as ‘nostalgia’, from the Greek ‘nostos’ (return to one’s native land) and ‘algos’ (pain or distress) signifying the pain a person feels because she is no longer in her native land.
Olsen’s impassioned narrative and visual documentation of the inner journey which unfolded thereafter, is compelling:
“Temperatures were often triple digits Fahrenheit, causing me to live on the fringe of days” says Olsen. But I came to realize that the desert was far from desolate, rather teeming with life. Up close and personal with it, I found myself as I walked the mesas. “
Tamera Olsen’s story is the story of countless others over the centuries, who, whether by force or voluntarily, have immigrated to a new and unfamiliar land. This circumstance, if faced with curiosity and courage, becomes a catalyst for deepening the spirit and opening the heart.
“Reflections on the Inner Landscape” is the rich and colourful telling of Tamera Olsen’s very personal process of deepening and opening, and the path back to finding peace, balance and congruency between her inner and outer worlds.
The show which runs until December 27th at the Burnaby Arts Council’s Deer Lake Gallery is well worth a look, for Burnaby native and transplanted immigrant alike. Gallery hours are noon to 4pm daily.
