Preserving memory of trees, one print at a time

Wildwood Park

Charleswood

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/04/2025 (188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like fingerprints, every tree that sprouts up out of the earth has its own unique imprint within its rings, which accumulate as the tree grows.

Pam Gerbrandt, a Charleswood-based artist, knows this as well as anyone. Since 2018, she has been making limited-edition prints taken from the unique ring patterns of local trees that have come down across Winnipeg.

“It began with us taking a tree that came down in our neighbour’s yard, we’d seen this type of work done before, and we did it to make a memory for them,” explained Gerbrandt, who first launched Nice Art People with her husband, though she does the bulk of the work herself these days. “It was to make something out of them, to preserve that memory of something that came down.”

A member of the Manitoba Craft Council, Gerbrandt sells her prints at markets across the city while continuing to do private commissions. She is also a substitute teacher, and mother to children in grades 2 and 4. Gerbrandt said that while each tree species provides its own set of unique challenges, the end results often speak for themselves.

“Maple is hard, and then there are trees like birch that are so soft they don’t print so good,” she said. “Russian olive are some of my favourite to print, they have such wide bands, they make a really striking image.”

Gerbrandt is currently at work on a special project, in conjunction with Wildwood Park Community Centre, at 271 North Dr. Over the next couple of months, she will create a limited series of 30 prints made from oak trees taken down recently near the Wildewood Golf Course. A portion of the proceeds from sales will support the community centre’s local tree-planting efforts.

“I care a lot about Wildwood. We lived on Jubilee Avenue for a dozen years,” she said. “This idea was an obvious ‘yes’ for me. I care about trees, I care about doing things for other people, about giving something a second life.” After loading her truck with chunks of oak, Gerbrandt will carefully process each piece and prepare it for printing.

“Oak usually prints really nicely,” she said. “Most of my time spent is preparing wood for print. I hand scrape every tree ring to get a good raised image. It’s super-time-consuming. It’s super-physical work to print them. I hand-burnish each piece, so the max I can do is about eight. It’s tough on my wrists. Oak usually have tight, tiny rings that are horrendous to scrape but make such beautiful images in the end. Oak also has great bark, so you get these great shapes around the edges.”

Each print in the limited Wildwood run will be approximately 30-by-30-inches and will cost $250 unframed, with 20 per cent of proceeds going to the Wildwood Park Community Centre.

“The idea was brought to our board by Seema Goel, who is one of our volunteer board members,” said Bill Jost, the centre’s past-president. “The proceeds from this project will go towards our annual fall tree planting (we usually plant 50 to 75 trees in our neighbourhood) and our walking, biking, classic and skate skiing, skijoring and dog sledding trails in the winter.”

For more information on how to purchase a print, contact wildwoodsy@gmail.com For more of Gerbrandt’s work, see @niceartpeople on Instagram.