Home

Inspired by the six of wand card in tarot, this painting is meant to evoke a feeling happiness and "coming home".

There is this childhood photo of me, around two or three years old, on my birthday, stuck between two of these paper birch trees on my grandparents' property that I find pretty iconic. I've always loved these trees, spent a lot of time connecting with them as a child, and this deeply personal painting evokes a feeling of coming home to my grandparents' house in Saint-Jean-De-Matha, with the pool in the back, my small fingers embossed in the cement walkway leading to the pool, and a bunch of these gorgeous grey and white paper birch trees in the front yard.

Over the years, I've associated this house and those trees with some of my happiest memories of simpler times. Like in the six of wands, which represent happy, celebratory and even triumphant times, this painting represents this early birthday, "stuck" between those two trees. Light as a feather and smiling at this new year of life, represented by the sunrise colours in the background.

In nature, paper birch trees are impossible to ignore; they impose their presence in the forest and don't seem to care about how different they may be.

Over time, their bark gently detaches, creating dainty rolls that look like lace attached to the tree, giving them a frivolous and sophisticated look.

In the fall, when the forest takes on a completely different allure, I find the contrast of the bright yellow and red leaves against the snowy white trunks to be a breathtaking spectacle.

As a fall solstice baby, I can't get enough of it, and I would also debate that it is worth travelling to Canada in the fall just to go admire them.