flower lunn

The students of Brooke Valley School paid a visit to the fieldwork site at the end of June.  Later in July, I received a wonderful package in the mail: a booklet of pockets filled will thank you notes!  Each also included a drawing of what they would make a badge of.  Several times I thought "of course!" How could I have forgotten about climbing trees!  Or looking at the stars! 

It is interesting to see what aspect of their experience is valuable or important enough that they would make it into their badge.  Animals, flowers, soccer, friends; whatever it was that connects them to the world they live in. 

A big thank you to all the kids of Brooke Valley School, and to Coral Nault, their wonderful teacher. 
 
Many years ago when I went to the school, she was our art teacher.  I have much to thank her for - her inspiration and unflagging support have encouraged several crops of highly creative former students!

One of the biggest gifts from growing up in this community has been the creative engagement with the world around us, particularly with the beauty and wonders to be found in the land.  That is still very much with me, and forms the core of my art practice, wherever I go.

Finally! Uploading images from the opening on Sun June 20th.  It was so good to see many local residents come out - particularly as that was the audience I had in my head as I was making it.  As much as it was a piece about the landscape space of the field, it was also very much about a presence in the local social space.  The badges are disseminating through that ecology now, and like seeds of a slow plant, will continue to do so over the summer.   Thank you everyone for coming!

Badges for Brooke Valley took shape this week when Flower Marie Lunn spent a few days custom fitting her banners to their poles and installing them and the pavillion with Adam's help (hooray for tall fellows!).  We lucked out with the weather and managed to get it up and running without getting too wet!

There are now three poles with flag banners atop them marking out the field, waving in the wind. 

One of the poles will also be the support for a badge pavilion, so to speak.   That is stage two. All stages will be up for the opening!

Alongside the events and passages that shape the life of a community are smaller, more individual events
in a life in the local landscape.  Badges for Brooke Valley celebrates the small moments of life in its woods
and fields, drawing upon memories of growing up in the area adjacent to the fieldwork site.

Skating over weeds frozen into ice, discovering secret patches of flowers in the forest, or going to the
outhouse at night – these passages were a big deal to me as a child, and form a unique kind of skill set,
overlooked beside more practical proficiencies and forgotten when I became an adult, now living in a city.
When I think back to my life here, I miss those subtle engagements that quietly strengthen the connection
to the land.

This is what Badges for Brooke Valley commemorates. Like scouts’ or guides’ merit badges,  the badge
marks experience of mastery, of adaptation to the situation at hand.  Unlike official merit badges, these
ones mark memories and skills unique to a person’s experience of growing up in the landscape.  Here  it is
the minor events, the childhood memories, the overlooked and idiosyncratic experiences of daily life in the
country, that are commemorated.

There will be an opening on Sunday June 20th, from 2 - 5pm.  All are welcome to come and take a badge, whether as souvenier, or memento in honour of shared experience.