Художница Джоанн Коул превращает пепел лесных пожаров в Кингстоне в новые произведения искусства

20 Questions: Western Bay artist turns Kingston wildfire remains into new art work Joanne Cole lost her studio in the Kingston wildfire but began documenting the landscape’s recovery through paintings and her first artist book When the Kingston wildfire destroyed Joanne Cole’s studio in Western Bay last year, summer 2025, the artist returned to a landscape blackened and stripped bare. Instead of turning away from it, she began documenting what remained — and what came next. Cole, who went to art school in 1987, had already spent decades capturing Newfoundland and Labrador’s landscape through her work. Her mother, Audrey Cole, and grandmother, Dorothy Purschke, were both painters, and after studying in Ontario, Cole returned home … drawn to the province’s beaches and geological formations. “I really missed the land,” she said. Her interest in geology grew while working at Memorial University’s library, where she had access to the personal field journals of James P. Howley, who produced one of the first comprehensive geological maps of the province. Cole later travelled to places described in his journals and produced an exhibition inspired by them. Her work continued to evolve after she moved to Western Bay in 2023, where she began exploring the rivers and landscape around her home. “I just love maps,” she said. She began following nearby waterways, sketching their channels and turning them into pictorial maps. She built a studio the following year. It lasted little more than a year before the Kingston wildfire destroyed it. LANDSCAPE LAID BARE When Cole returned after the fire, several of her neighbours had lost their homes, while the landscape around her had been reduced to blackened ground and exposed rock. Her own house had survived. “I thought to myself, I could start over again,” she said. What stayed with Cole was what had been uncovered. “The landscape laid bare. It was all exposed now.” The vegetation that had previously covered the ground was gone, revealing rocks and features she had never seen. “It was all rock underneath,” she said. “Things on my property that I didn’t know were there would have been covered.” Cole began painting again from a small space in her living room. The fire also forced her to reconsider colour. “I was never good with colour. I was always afraid to use it, but now I see colour as just fantastic.” WHAT THE FIRE LEFT BEHIND Cole began collecting material from the burned landscape, starting with patches of bright orange clay exposed where anthills had been. She sieved the clay to remove stones and debris, baked it and ground it into a powder before rubbing it onto paper. “I just used it dry and rubbed my hands in it, and it tinted the paper really well,” she said. Burned branches and twigs became charcoal. She began experimenting with pieces from different trees, including alder and pine. Cole also decided to document the recovery of three places near her home that had been special to her before the fire: Black Rock, Fern Gully and Drowned Boot Marsh, names she gave the places herself. She had walked and sketched in the areas before the fire and began returning once a month to record what was happening. The project eventually became her first artist’s book, “Aftermath,” combining original drawings, text and material from the burned landscape. A YEAR OF WATCHING Cole presented the book alongside a series of paintings at an exhibition at Salem over the weekend. While she had exhibited paintings before, the book marked a new direction. “It’s my first artist book that I’ve made,” she said. “Each page in there, it’s original.” “I was kind of living in the middle of this regrowth and watching the land regrow.” The process has also changed what Cole notices in the landscape. Before the fire, vegetation had largely been something she painted around. “I wouldn’t touch vegetation. It was all just, you know, a green blob that covered up rocks.” Now she studies what grows in its place. Behind her property, areas once covered by juniper and caribou moss are now filled with blueberries. “Things that are growing back now are different from what was here before,” she said. Cole said the experience has given her a greater appreciation for nature’s ability to recover. “I’m seeing how powerful nature really is, and the power of the earth to regenerate itself.” RESILIENCE OF NATURE AND THE PEOPLE From Cole’s window, she can see new houses being built where others were lost. “The land especially speaks to the resilience of nature and the people,” she said. “It kind of goes hand-in-hand with the regrowing of the land and people wanting to come back here to the land, and rebuild their homes.” Her hope is that the work offers a different way of looking at what happened. “I could have gone a different direction and just painted, you know, the scary shapes of all the pointed trees and things out here. But instead, I went towards looking at the land as regrowth over a period of time,” she said. “I hope that people take away something positive from all that’s happened out here.” 20 Questions Q. What is your full name? A. Joanne Lynn Cole. Q. Where and when were you born, and where do you live today? A. I was born in Carbonear, Newfoundland, on Dec. 22, 1962, and I presently live in Western Bay, Conception Bay North. Q. What is one thing you would like people to know about you? A. I’m very low-key and very calm in situations. I don’t moan over things or keep rehashing things. I just move on to the next step. Q. What would people be surprised to learn about you? A. When I was a preteen and teenager, I wrote a lot of stories and some comic books. Some were about things that actually happened, and some were totally from my imagination, involving my friends, big adventures and solving mysteries. I was really influenced by Enid Blyton stories, particularly the Famous Five adventures. Q. What is the hardest thing you have done? A. In 1987, I quit my full-time job with the government and left Newfoundland to go to Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, to do a fine arts degree. I was 24 and I didn’t know anyone there. I just kind of knew I had to do it, and it worked out. Q. Can you describe one experience that changed your life? A. Going to art school and receiving a fine arts degree from Brock. The courses really brought back the creativity that I had lost in my late teens and early 20s and brought me back to my creative self. Q. What is your greatest indulgence? A. Definitely cake. Any kind of cake — or muffins, cookies, pie. I’d really sell my soul for cake. Q. What is your favourite book? A. Definitely “A Reminiscence of James P. Howley”, a volume of his edited journals about his field work. It’s a really good read for anyone who likes history or the outdoors. He loved the land and the way he described Newfoundland is just wonderful. I’ve read and reread it and done artwork based on it. One copy burned in the fire, but I quickly got another one. Q. What is your favourite movie? A. I like a lot of the old movies, but anything with Humphrey Bogart. I thought he was a real class actor, particularly in Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. Q. What music do you like to listen to? A. I like listening to music from different periods of my life, but these days I like the crooners — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, those old guys. Q. How do you like to relax? A. Swimming relaxes me. I also like wandering along the shoreline with my sketchbook and nothing in mind to do, just finding somewhere nice to sit, hear the waves and walk along the river. More or less mindless wandering into nature, with no purpose except to go and look and listen. Q. Who would play you in a movie about your life? A. Jodie Foster. She was my favourite actress when I was young. Her younger movies were kind of tomboyish, and I related to that because I was a bit of a tomboy growing up. Q. What is your greatest fear? A. Spiders. Next question! Q. What is your greatest joy? A. Definitely my family — my mom, my two kids and my grandson. They bring so much to my life. My mom is a great influence and supporter, and my kids have grown up to be exceptional people. Q. What is your most treasured possession? A. My property here in Western Bay. It’s a special place, and my family enjoy coming here, too. It’s something that I’ve given to them and that’s been given to me. It’s a bit of a resort for them to come out here and hang out. It’s a place of peace. Q. What is the best advice you got from a parent or mentor? A. My mom told me once that if you have a good mind, speak up. If you see something that you think is wrong, speak up about it and don’t just go along with what’s happening if you don’t like something. Q. What would you say is your best quality, and what would you say your worst quality is? A. My best quality is my ability not to panic in situations and to deal with things calmly. My worst would be that I’m a bit of an overthinker. Q. Where is your favourite place in the world? A. The island of Newfoundland. It’s just something you return home to, no matter where you go. We still have so much great coastline that isn’t developed, and so many beautiful and different landscapes. Q. What advice would you give to your 12-year-old self? A. Be yourself and follow your dreams and do what you’re good at. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Just go for who you are, be who you are and go for it. Q. Which three people would join you for your dream dinner party? A. James P. Howley, Clifford George and my grandfather John Henry Cole.  They are all good story tellers and enjoyed the outdoors, a hearty meal and a good cup of tea. Answer may have been edited for length and clarity.