Artwork inspired by national park forests showcased in new exhibition

KOKOMO, Ind. - Artwork inspired by Canadian and American national parks is featured in the new exhibition opening Monday (July 13) in the Indiana University Kokomo Art Gallery.

Forest Narratives features nearly 2 dozen artworks created by Minda Douglas, associate professor of fine arts, during her fall 2025 sabbatical, which included time in national parks in the western United States and Canada.

The exhibition continues through Wednesday, September 16, with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 2. Douglas will give an artist talk at 5 p.m. during the reception.

She chose Jasper National Park in Alberta to see the effects of the July 2024 wildfire and to view the boreal forests; Pacific Rim National Park in British Columbia for its temperate rainforests, in particular the western red cedars sacred to the First Nations people; and also visited Glacier National Park in Montana and Olympic National Park in Washington.

"What I was interested in at Jasper was how the forest and nature have responded to the wildfire," she said. "I was wondering what the regeneration was looking like, and how the place would feel. I was open to whatever I would experience."

That work focused on the fragmentation of ecology or nature, and how things can be pushed beyond the brink of recovery, but also about the resilience of the forest rebounding back. The effects of the wildfire were different in various areas of the park, with some rebounding and others still devastated.

"The wildflowers were going crazy, and the aspen trees were coming up, there was a feeling of this regeneration happening in some parts," Douglas said. "In others, there was more of a devastation feel, like it wasn't going to be able to rebound very easily or very quickly."

That park inspired charcoal drawings, photography, and collage work, including a series called Forest Fragment, comprised of burned chunks of wood isolated on a white background.

"That was inspired by the idea that the forest was very fragmented and struggling to rebound and recover from the fire," she said, adding that in some cases, wildfires are beneficial in burning off underbrush and adding nutrients to the soil.

"They had a particularly hot and dry summer which led to a very vast and very hot and very strong wildfire that was much more devastating than helpful. Those five charcoal drawings are more of a negative take on what's happening with some of the devastating wildfires."

She also created pieces focused on regeneration, highlighting the aspen trees.

"Aspen trees send up roots laterally," she said. "Their roots are underground and can send up new trees. They have a particular tolerance for recovery. I found that fascinating that among the burnt forest floor there were green trees poking up and big and colorful wildflowers."

Working in cyanotype, collage, and photography, she created prints of the burned aspen forests, cutting them apart and weaving them back together.

On Vancouver Island, Pacific Rim National Park offered the opportunity to see some of the largest and oldest Western Red Cedars in the world, and to create her largest work of the exhibition, Sacred Cedar.

"The work that was inspired by things out there was focused more on the spiritual quality of forests and trees, and what they mean to people," Douglas said. The First Nations people held the trees as sacred, and used them for weaving, clothing, baskets, ceremonies, and canoes.

"The cedars were a big part of their lives," she said. "Cedar is a wood that is long-lasting. It doesn't rot very easily. It has a lot of medicinal uses and functional uses. They considered them very sacred. I wanted to do a piece that encapsulated that idea. That idea is so powerful, so big, so important, it was hard for me to come up with what it had to be."

Finally, she came up with the idea of making the cedar tree into the Milky Way galaxy, incorporating images of cedar leaves and branches onto an 8-foot by 8-foot spiral galaxy carved from gator board and collaged.

In addition, she also made weavings, and a series of tiny artists books inspired by the tiny elements of a forest, such as mushrooms and lichen.

Douglas said she was thankful to have the sabbatical time to travel and create new work and was grateful for the grant funding she received that made it possible.

"Grants provided by the campus and IU as a whole provided me the opportunity to do this work," she said, adding that her time away meant colleagues took on extra work, and she was not available to work with students.

"It took a lot of resources and sacrifices from other people to give me this opportunity," she said. "I recognize and appreciate that."

The IU Kokomo Art Gallery is in the Library Building, 2300 S. Washington St. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Admission is free, and free parking is available on campus.

For more information about the Gallery, visit kokomo.iu.edu/gallery/.

Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.

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