‘The Highway That Built the North’

From Mile Zero in Dawson Creek to the edge of the Yukon near Beaver Creek, one local artist is turning a lifetime of Alaska Highway memories into art. Becky of Blind Creek Studios opens The Highway That Built the North on June 6, a collection of eight layered wood pieces inspired by places that have helped shape her journey through the North.

Photo by Kim Rose

The eight piece collection of layered wood artworks follows the Alaska Highway, hanging through the gallery from south to north, the same direction you'd drive the road.

“This road raised me,” said Becky, the artist behind Blind Creek Studios on Facebook. “I grew up driving it, and I drive it still. It connects us to everything up here and it holds more memories than I could ever count.”

Becky grew up in the Yukon and has been travelling this stretch of highway since she was young. The exhibit draws on years of memories collected along the route, including family trips through Liard Hot Springs, the turquoise water at Muncho Lake, Stone Sheep near Summit Pass, and the Wood Bison around Coal River that seem to stop traffic whenever they feel like it.

The collection begins with First Mile North (Mile 0, Dawson Creek), Pieces of the Valley (Mile 35, Peace River Valley), High Country Duel (Mile 392, Summit Pass), and Driving the Edge (Mile 462, Muncho Lake). It then continues north with Liard: A Warm Pause (Mile 496, Liard Hot Springs), Guardians of the Highway (Mile 533, Coal River), Moose of Laberge (Mile 914, Lake Laberge), and Guardian of the North (Mile 1202, near Beaver Creek).

“I started this series in late December and for the first time in my career I built every single piece with the same colour palette, the same stain work, the same intention,” said Becky. “Watching it come together as one cohesive body of work was something I genuinely didn’t expect to feel the way it did.”

Becky stated this collection is the most personal thing she has ever made, with each piece representing a place along the highway as you’re headed north.

The exhibit opens June 6 and runs through June 30 at the Dawson Creek Art Gallery, fittingly at Mile Zero where the Alaska Highway begins. As Becky put it, “Come find your place in it.”

Photo by Kim Rose