Don Lewis

My Story

I became interested nature in my early years, spending hours exploring the woods and creeks near our home, in Sarnia, Ontario. One of my influences in those days was the children’s novel “My Side of the Mountain”. As time went on and through high school I began sketching and doing watercolours of animals I had found or some that I was interested in but had only seen in books.

When applying for university I was torn between the arts and biology. In the end I was able to find a compromise and happiness at the University of Guelph as I completed my Biology degree but was able to take all my electives in fine art.

Toronto sculptor John Fillion had a profound influence on my drawing and sculpture as he emphasized the importance of understanding the underlying anatomy of the human form while also capturing the power and life force of the living being.

While encouraging me to undertake detailed human anatomy watercolours and ink drawings, as well as large format charcoal drawings, professor Fillion also introduced me to stone carving. I completed several large limestone carvings and fell in love with the bite of the chisel and the power and permanence of the stone. I felt that using stone as a medium allowed me to capture the power and at the same time the fragility of life.

Ultimately, the practicality of raising a family along with my love of nature resulted in my pursuit of a career as a biologist and environmental consultant. During these years I became aware of the general disconnect between my clients, society as a whole and the natural world. As we go about our lives we seem unaware that our actions impact our living world. We are “nature blind”.  As my career progressed, I became dissatisfied with my inability to make an impact.  The small whisper that was calling me back to my artistic roots began to grow.

Now as the 6th great extinction progresses and we face our own existential crisis, we still seem unable to make the connection and I wonder why. My recent art, developed over the last 6 years, explores the disconnect and fear that humans have of the natural world from which we came. My carvings, drawings and paintings include threatened or extinct species, the result of this disconnect. I am also developing a “biophilia” series to explore the yearning we have to be close to nature. As we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.

The Choices We Make

Can humanity learn to respect the living world, treating each species with dignity. Nature will be watching us…because that’s what nature does. My recent thinking and my art is really about reflecting on life through this lens. Nature is watching us, sometimes in horror, as we burn and bulldoze our way across the planet.

Will Determine

Sometimes the fires are intentional as we take down beautiful complex ecosystems to create monoculture biodiversity deserts, and sometimes they are set through our wars and our carelessness…and sometimes these fires, even those set by lightening, find the fuel in our climate change parched forests, to burn out of control across hundreds of millions of hectares every year around the globe

Our Future

My recent art is intended to invoke discussion, to make us feel uncomfortable and to explore our disconnect with nature. Only through experiencing nature first hand and seeing ourselves as integrated into Gaia, our living planet, can we evolve as a successful species and grow into the future.