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Diana Lynn Thompson, Numbered Leaves of a Katsura Tree, "Hundreds and Thousands", 2000, Bear Creek Park, Surrey, BC, Canada

Diana Lynn Thompson

Diana Lynn Thompson's thoughtful and visually stunning artworks bridge the gap between ephemeral "art in nature" installations and community-based conceptual art. Whether meticulously numbering or adding people's names to thousands of leaves, or distributing engraved seashells to 140 people from around the world as gifts to the sea (and carefully documenting the process), Thompson links ordinary people to the nature of her native Canada. She believes "the process is the teacher" and like a drop of water eroding a boulder, the implications of her projects are deeply moving.

"Hundreds and Thousands" (see image) was a year-long project where Thompson numbered every leaf on five trees as well as wrote poetry on additional leaves in a park in Surrey, British Columbia. As the leaves fell, Thompson washed and flattened, and then pinned all 38,000 of them, with the help of visitors, to the Surrey Art Gallery's walls. Leaves inscribed with poetry were left for visitors to chance upon them in the park.

In "Gesture", Thompson began a suite of coastal ephemeral art in nature projects using sand and sea shells and beach clean up. What made these interventions unusual (aside from their visual beauty) was the artist's focus on engaging the public. "It was important that the work be seen on site and that I was able to speak with those who were interested in the work. Much ephemeral environmental or site-specific art is only experienced third-hand, through photographs - which lack the immediacy and impact of the real thing."

A multi-part international participative project, called "Alluvion", empowered participants to make ephemeral art from Canadian seashells fragments. Thompson explains how "the simple act of placement has become a way to examine the acts of marking and erasure, throwing away or letting go, ritual and relationship, loss and regaining, giving, taking and receiving. Participants have been flippant, playful, earnest, thoughtful and funny. They have turned the project on its head, enjoyed it, debated it, used it, kept it, or taken it to extremes, but most of all, they have joined in."

"Can the magical impulse of imagination," asks the artist, "of discovering something beautiful unfold in one's hands - still be kept alive without the world being filled with more junk?" If the art of Diana Lynn Thompson is any indication, the answer is a resounding, "Yes".

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Artist in DeLeon White Gallery

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