Liz hopes her work evokes a response within you, whether it is a reflection, curiosity, a sense of peace or compassion. Liz's most recent painting, "Humanity" is the centerpiece of Bicycles for Humanity awareness and fundraising campaign globally.

Liz was born in Fernie B.C, and credits her early childhood there, to her affinity with nature. Liz has been involved in various forms of visual art since high school. Liz has been a resident of Kelowna since 1977 and is active in The Kelowna Calligraphers Guild and the Federation of Canadian Artists. Liz teaches art and calligraphy and is very active in the local arts community.

Pieces of Liz's art in various mediums hang in collections in The Netherlands, Germany, the States and Canada.Her work has been published on several occasions in "Somerset Studio", magazine. Liz continues to teach Watercolour and Calligraphy Classes through The Kelowna Art Gallery

"Art allows me to experience the mystery of life; it becomes a communication vehicle for our spirit."

Liz can be reached at vincentmalejapa@aol.com

A few of Liz's art works are presented on the following pages.

Liz, thank you for your contribution to Bicycles for Humanity.

Humanity Work Installed in Kelowna Art Gallery

About 'Humanity'

IMAGINING THE IMAGE by Liz Woodside.

In the middle of September 2005, Pat Montani phoned and asked me to create a logo and art piece that would be used on stickers for used bikes, and for posters and art cards... objective: to bring awareness to "Bicycles For Humanity"; collecting and shipping used bikes to developing countries. He said he liked the way I incorporate calligraphed words into my paintings.

I immediately felt compassion for the cause, compelled to put a face to what he was saying, and honoured that he had the faith in me to do it.

It was important to begin with a logo that would instantly "brand" Bicycles For Humanity on the website and elsewhere. Being a calligrapher, I readily visualized the letter "B" as a vertical bicycle with the wheels giving a pictorial message to the words, ie people of all races holding hands around the world. Initially they were stick people dancing around a map of the world with the meridian lines posing as spokes of a wheel. That image needed to be simplified to reduce well, and so it gradually evolved to stockier and fewer people holding hands around a compass, going out in all directions, still posing as spokes. The lettering and layout too, went through a process of elimination, from playful informal styles to the more formal corporate look. We chose hand calligraphed "Uncial" letters (not a computerized font) to humanize and distinguish the logo.

Next, how does one create a painting to work both as a poster and art cards, limited edition prints etc. Pat asked for something that would create curiosity, that people would stop to look at, not just see it all in a single glance. I felt it was important to incorporate the logo into the painting so that viewers would associate it with the cause, but not have it look too commercial. I also felt it was important to define "Humanity", but what would that look like? The painting would have to be very colourful to get attention as a poster, and appeal to people around the globe.

Trees have always been important to me and thoughts of the Tree of Life and Family Tree came up. The first link with Bicycles for Humanity was with Namibia in Africa, so I began looking through old National Geographic magazines for African references.

An article in February 2003 about the Sudan told of the people climbing trees to eat leaves, supplemented only with water lily roots, to provide the barest means of survival. That reinforced the tree idea. Some time later I was still feeling blocked and asked for inspiration. Ironically, the next day I was riding a stationary bicycle at the gym and looking out the window, became mesmerized with golden, fall coloured leaves of a ginko tree, shimmering and fluttering in the sunlight. A vision of "stick" people holding a variety of leaves, dancing around the world in a rainbow and merging with the tree branches, came to me. I've learned not to question these impulses, but to work with them. Riding my bike on the way home, I stopped and collected as many different varieties of tree leaves as I could find.

The big white canvas (40"x66") loomed in front of me as I began drawing in pencil, the bicycle, the word humanity, and the tree, and then began painting the front wheel, which was composed of some prior logo ideas... map of the world, people becoming transparent, and coloured to represent the various races of the world, but also the colours of the rainbow. I was using acrylic paints in a method used by watercolourists called glazing, laying many thin transparent layers of colour on top of each other to create mystery and depth. I was painting the negative spaces to expose the tree. I felt it needed a hand placed on it, a helping hand, reaching out, just like the branches of the tree. Faces began appearing through the layers and I enhanced them, as I did the bicycle with the person reading a book, in the upper left. The book is symbolic of literacy, the bicycle empowers teachers and students alike. The moon represents the universe, but the face in it becomes one with us.

Pat had asked for a few words to be integrated into the design such as truth, respect, dignity, compassion and empowerment. Initially I thought to calligraph these words on top of the branches but decided I wanted a more subtle effect, and so the lettering loosely forms additional branches in the background. The word "empowerment" is placed in the forks of the back wheel which drives the bicycle forward and "empowers" the people in the front wheel.

Even though I worked intuitively, I still questioned how much the leaves and the tree really had to do with humanity. After the leaves were painted I looked up "Tree Of Life" in the Collins dictionary and to my amazement, it referred me to Revelation 22:2 "and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations". Once again, I was humbled by the confirmation of what had evolved. Humanity is all about understanding and helping one another, thereby healing of the nations.

This whole process of logo design and the painting took two and a half months. Thank-you Pat, for your patience and for giving me the opportunity for global expression.

"Art is not an end in itself but a means of addressing humanity." by composer M.P. Moussorgsky. 1839-81