“A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.”
-Jack London, White Fang
Wolf Tree 2 is my second iteration on this idea.
On the right is my first rendition, painted with watercolor in 2020.
Wolf Tree 2
13 x 17
Ink on Bristol Paper
2024
Wolf Tree 2 is greatly inspired by the works of Jack London. Much of London’s writing focuses on the harshness of living and working in Yukon. How danger can come from the weather, the animals or even human shortcomings.
The first three chapters of his book “White Fang” describe the horrors of the Yukon winter, the stillness of the world, a pack of wolves that pursues them and the lack of food, warmth and safety.
Even the process of making this piece was inspired by the winters London describes. Every line of ink was applied with a fine brush. The twisting trees, shadows, flames and wolf was all rendered line by line. Ink pens might have sped the process up but they wouldn’t have given the same level of control or organic shape that traditional brushes have. More than the quality of line, it was the time spent that really echoed the long winters.
Wolf Tree 2 was made in around 30 hours over the course of four weeks. Long hours of building up layers and dry brushing in textures. I could see that time was passing and progress was being made but I couldn’t know exactly when it would end. Through the long hours of painting in the night I had to have faith that spring would arrive. The only way through was to give up, or line by line make my way through to the end.
