Looked out your window lately? There's bound to be something wild

In a drawing that stretches 35 feet long, B.C. artist Sarah Ronald has sketched a ghostly night-time universe. In this inky landscape — which is comprised of 14 connected scenes — nocturnal creatures come out to play: bats, coyotes, bears ... and a garden gnome.

Let it be a reminder: there's a whole world outside your window if you take the time to look. And from Ronald's house in the Vancouver suburbs, all those animals (plus garden statuary) are a common sight.

"That panorama is about the [animal] activity that's come and gone through my backyard," says Ronald. And it appears in Territory, her current solo exhibition, which is on now at the Gibsons Art Gallery to Feb. 7. 

The show includes paintings, animation and several more of her drawings — many rendered in white pencil crayon and pastel to mimic the eerie blur of animals caught on security cams. 

Animals have long been her favourite subject matter, and while researching another project several years ago, she was struck by the incredible wildlife footage that people were getting by rigging cameras in forests and front decks. She loved the blown-out, night-vision aesthetic. "It's so dreamy and haunting," says Ronald.

But another aspect was even more intriguing: there was something powerful about seeing an animal in such a candid way. "These [images] exist because we're not there," she says. "It really got me thinking about how to incorporate this into my work."

Sometime in 2019, Ronald began mimicking the look of this found footage in her art. She has her own cameras installed outside her house, actually — though her home security system pre-dates this project. "I know there are a lot of critters out there," she says, even though the yard itself is not especially big. She estimates it's roughly 30 feet deep — so a little shorter than the panoramic drawing in Territory. But she's observed a sort of "wildlife corridor" between her street and a townhouse complex up the hill. 

"They travel through the neighbourhood behind my fence," she says. "I'll go out and see a coyote pop his head around. Or, more often, it's raccoons. Sometimes I think the raccoons just come here to hang out," she laughs. The cameras, she explains, just confirmed what she already knew — while capturing all the fauna-drama on video. And when she experiences a wildlife encounter — on camera, or in person — she says that's usually her cue to hit the studio. 

The panorama drawing, she says, was especially inspired by those backyard happenings. Created over November and December this past year, it actually captures a much longer timeline of her outdoor space. A detail might document specific events: a fallen tree, a visit from a family of raccoons. Other scenes are more speculative. (She confesses, for example, that she's never seen a bear back there, though they have been known to invade her neighbour's place.)

"You kind of get a sense of the space when you've been there long enough, what kind of activities happen," says Ronald, but she explains that the image serves as more than a journal. The piece uses her yard as a stand-in for the natural world at large, a place forever churning with change. 

With two further exhibitions planned for later this year, Ronald says that she's continuing to add new works to Territory, and she's especially interested in producing hand-drawn animation for the series.

A 17-minute piece (Encounter) appears at the exhibition in Gibsons, and the film aims to capture the sensation of crossing paths with a coyote. "Imagine being out in the woods in the middle of the night. Or even on the street at two in the morning when there's nobody out there," she says. "I'm interested in using animation as a way to almost have a one-on-one with wildlife."

The entire series is an invitation to connect with the wild world around us, and one could argue the pandemic's already prompted more of that. Yard space is precious. Birdwatching is trending. A knife-wielding Toronto squirrel can capture international headlines. And prior to lockdown, was there ever a time when gawping out a picture window was such a mainstream pastime? 

Ronald was already working from home when the pandemic struck, but she understands what happens when you spend a lot of time within your own property lines. It is, after all, a driving creative force behind Territory. "When you stay in a space for a really long time, you don't feel ownership — you feel like you're a part of that space. So to spend time outside, you're part of it."

"There's something about that — that connection — where you can just be present with [nature] instead of trying to control it. Maybe with COVID a lot more people are being present."

Sarah Ronald. Territory. To Feb. 7 at Gibsons Art Gallery, Gibsons, B.C. www.gpag.ca