The second Tanya Bub steps foot on the rocks, profound attention and stillness come over her. She’s immediately in the zone. To most of us, the beach is covered in random rocks and wood. Bub sees something different: the tip of an ear, the curve of a spine, the history of a tree from miles and miles away.
What Bub looks for as a driftwood hunter is a uniqueness. She is interested in colour, form and texture. She says “You might see where the wood grew around a rock or how it’s weathered by stone or water, and then you have all that built into your piece. When the person looks at the sculpture, there are all these extra layers in it.”
When her pieces are assembled, Bub believes that the viewer is subconsciously aware of the motion of the ocean and the history of the trees while also seeing the shape of the sculpture it’s become. She says the viewer implicitly recognizes resurrection which deepens the reaction to the work. “People see something that has an evident history in both life and death,” she says. “which is then resurrected to have a second life in the form of art.”
Written by Sandy Ibrahim
***
Which hood are you in?
I live in Fairfield in Victoria, BC.
What do you do?
I make sculptures of people and animals from driftwood.
What are you currently working on?
Sculptures of dogs and owls.
Where can we find your work?
All around Victoria BC, including the Malahat Skywalk, The Marina Restaurant, The Tourism Victoria office, in front of my house at 1337 Fairfield Rd and for sale at the Gage Gallery and Studio 106. And of course, on Instagram.
