We’ve chosen orange/yellow, green and purple. Our open sky sunsets burst into blood orange and gold. When the land springs back after a long winter, the green vegetation and smell of the earth are invigorating. Our hasty 6-week summer begins when a tiny purple flower suddenly blooms underfoot, even while snow lays on the ground.

Churchill living— on this land and sky is like living on an artist’s paint palette. During the winter, when ferocious blizzard winds blow snow to invisibility with minus 50 windchill, it’s truly amazing to suddenly catch a ball of blazing orange through the white haze as the setting sun appears through a crack in the storm. Nights with a full moon are so illuminating on the snow that you feel like it is daylight. During the long dark nights of deep cold, when every piece of moisture is sucked frozen, we get clear skies.

Then we experience nature’s greatest art jam: aurora borealis. The stunning light display of dancing purple and green will make your heart dazzle, and your soul shake. In the summer, when the river and ocean are finally free to flow, the water landscape is constantly swirling with the tides and big winds. We feel drawn to the shape of a circle because it very much encapsulates the drama of our cycling season, the sun, the waves, the moon and the ribbons of aurora.

When the snow finally melts, the land rapidly explodes into colour with remarkable tundra flowers. There are 5 varieties of purple ones, like Saxifrage and Fireweed. Many flowers grow right in the rocks and sand, having interesting adaptations to grow in these challenging habitats. Then there’s the Mountain Aven, a white & yellow flower that covers the tundra in a magic fairyland. Tiny hairs on the underside of its leaf capture sunlight and create its own greenhouse. Once in bloom, the Aven flower follows the sun as the long daylight hours can maximize it’s growth. Avens are important seasonal indicators. The seeds twist into little dreadlocks. Then the dreadies open up into a ball of white shimmery floof, to get blown away by early chilly fall winds. 

The tundra is also surprisingly fruitful. Carpet-sized plants grow wild edible berries like blueberry and cranberry. We feel our identity is similar to the tundra flowers, our growth as a collective, and our desire for grassroots local art, to flourish like Avens.