PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Vancouver Island

LITERATURE
William Kurelek, Lumberjack, 1974, reproduced with chapter 7, unpaginated

Following the widespread success of his first illustrated children’s book, A Prairie Boy’s Winter (1973), William Kurelek wrote Lumberjack, a collection of stories and painted scenes from his time working in the Canadian bush. He describes this period in his early 20s as a self-imposed rite of passage, away from the comforts of his home life and living in dangerous work camps deep in the woods of northern Ontario to win respect from his father and prove himself. In the book, Kurelek narrates and illustrates vivid scenes from the arduous logging process alongside memories of tool upkeep, hardy meals, spontaneous leisure and provisional sleeping arrangements.

In Dynamiting a Log Jam, the seventh scene in Lumberjack, a water jet triggered by an explosive charge planted below bursts through the centre of hundreds of meticulously rendered logs tangled across the river. Tucked into the corner of the image are two men taking cover after depressing the plunger on the blasting machine, awaiting the result of their last-ditch effort to loosen the jam.

Kurelek recalls the outcome: “WHAM! WHOOSH! A large column of water, smoke, logs and splinters of logs burst into the air. But the jam stayed put. And so did the column of water and logs—forever in my memory—to come out later in sketches and finally in this painting…”

All prices are in Canadian Dollars