Light filters through the windows of the studio alongside the chirps of crickets as dusk washes the sky. The captivating pull of the silk canvas calls Holly; dipping a paint brush into paint, she feels a sense of calm as she translates one of her ideas onto silk. Releasing the flurry of ideas in her mind onto her silk canvas, she brings intricate anamorphic creatures inspired by her own walks, paddles and time spent outdoors to life. Inspired by the North Mountain that she calls home, her creativity is a balm for her own mind, just as much as it is for others.

For multidisciplinary and award-winning artist Holly Carr, nature is more than inspiration: it’s medicine. Her work is deeply rooted in scientific research on how the natural world supports mental health. “All of my art is informed by science-based research on the relationship between nature and mental wellness,” she says.

When her son was younger, she knew that he was struggling with severe anxiety, especially at night when anxious thoughts would take hold and loop around his brain for hours. They would talk about how he loved nature and animals, to try to redirect his thoughts, support him, and reassure him that he wasn’t alone. “We would talk about how he could find light in the dark and that things were going to be okay. He just had to hang in there.”

Years later, when Holly was asked to do an exhibit at Acadia University Art Gallery she decided to create a world that “Everybody could get in, not just me and my son, and maybe inspire people to find ways to comfort themselves.”

This is when the first seeds of the Light in the Forest project were planted.

Holly built this giant silk world which brought the outdoors inside through this world that was safe. It was originally structured as a live performance, but the pandemic forced Holly to change plans. She was unsure where to take it next, but she knew she had to keep it going; the  growing youth mental health crisis during lockdown made the need even more pressing. She hired her son, who was then working in the film industry, to start animating her art. Beautifully and meticulously bringing each creature to life was a deep collaboration between mother and son, her paint strokes dreaming up world onto silks inspired by him and him animating them years later for more generations to experience the magic of nature and build a space for conversations on mental health. They were later able to return to live shows together, which were a union of art, nature and mental wellness. Holly recalls, “We wanted to be really sweet, like Mr. Dressup and simple and not flashy, just lovely, fluid, soft, you know, calm, meditative.”

Holly reflects on elements that carved her artistic style, from early inspiration like Ernie Coombs’ Mr. Dressup character with freehand drawing of animals and nature. She married artist Alan Bateman, whose father was Robert Bateman, a renowned wildlife painter well known in Canada; she traveled with them all over the world and witnessed beautiful vistas together. In sharing a studio with Alan in her early days, where he was painting his animals and Holly was painting her animals onto silk, they were united in their inspiration by the natural world.

Infusing her style into the Light in the Forest project over the past six years has allowed it to flourish and take root not as one single project but as an entire ecosystem made up of live performances, installations, books, an app developed with partners, and so much more. All are rooted in the same purpose: to provide a canopy for youth to have a safe space to expand their own comfort levels with nature and experience its benefits for their mental wellness.

One form that the Light in the Forest  has taken is in the form of an app developed with professor Jamie Symonds and students, finalized by Redspace and partners including the RBC Foundation, Valley Mutual Hospital Foundation, and endorsed by the Canadian Mental Health Association. Carr created the app as a digital extension of her work and she is deeply grateful for the partners that made it possible.

The project quickly gained attention at the provincial level. “The Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Brian Comer, came and saw it in action at the Natural History Museum and saw what I was doing,” Carr recalls. “I had 75 kids of all ages in there at the time and was running through the program with them… and they came on board when they experienced what was happening.”

The app itself is filled with accessible tools and resources. “They’re all free resources, crisis hotlines and accessible places you can go outside and inside where it doesn’t cost money, where you can calm your brain down,” she explains. 

Recognizing that not all youth have easy access to green space, Carr is intentional about meeting them where they are. Her project aims to bridge that gap and educate on the benefits of nature for mental health, bringing the magic of nature to where youth are through art, books, performance, the app, and encouraging them to delve deeper into the natural world.

As part of the initiative, Carr has toured the province, reaching thousands of students with her live theatrical show. “I’ve been in all regions of Nova Scotia. I’m going to Cape Breton this fall. I go into a community for a week and I run sort of a theatrical interactive program every day for youth from age primary to university and it’s all around art, nature, and mental health.”

The app also includes a self-care section grounded in evidence-based practices. “I’ve included five things you can actually do that are scientifically proven to help yourself calm down,” Carr explains. “And of course one of the main ones is being in nature. There’s breathing exercises and lots of other things around accessing nature.” The resource includes a map of accessible green spaces across Nova Scotia, like trails for nature walks. The Nature Trust land has accessible properties across the province as well, and although our lands are not currently part of Holly’s project, we want to carry on the spirit of the Light of the forest project by offering our interactive map as an additional resource of lands and green spaces that can be used for hikes and for the mental health benefits of nature. 

A unique feature of the Light in the Forest app allows users to interact with birds in a virtual sanctuary. “Little birds fly through and you can put them in a sanctuary and a tree, and you can hear their actual bird calls,” she says. “When I use nature, it’s definitely my interpretation of nature, but they’re realistic enough. You know what the bird is—if it’s a cardinal, you know it’s a cardinal. And then I use real bird calls and things like that. When you’re in nature, if you hear a cardinal, you’ll recognize it because of the app.”

To ensure the experience reaches beyond live performances, Carr also built an immersive Natural History exhibit. “That exhibit is like the live show, but I don’t have to be there and it’s three-dimensional,” she explains. “You can kind of insert yourself in it and have this natural experience.”

The exhibit is as interactive as the app and performance. “It’s the three walls of giant animation that are on silk and you get inside and there’s silk trees,” she says. “Then there’s little interactive sections that are based on self-care. You can write on a leaf what you’re grateful for. You can make some art as the tree grows with its foliage of gratitude.” We were very grateful to have Holly bring her gratitude tree and her live painting to our 30th Anniversary Inspired by Nature Gala where guests got to watch her bring her creatures to life on silks.

To conclude, in Holly’s words, the heart of Light in the Forest is simple but powerful: “Everybody needs a place, a safe place. That is what The Light in the Forest is.”

What’s next…

Coming up, Holly Carr continues to expand Light in the Forest through multiple creative avenues. She has two children’s books: Light in the Forest and its companion The Comfort Tree, which were both selected as part of the Best Books of Canada by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre in Toronto.

This fall, she’ll debut her Light in the Forest Natural History exhibit at the Acadia University Art Gallery. “We might have some really exciting elements that I’ve never done before,” she says. She’ll also be giving a public talk and workshop at the university as part of the exhibit, which is opening in September.

In November, Light in the Forest will travel to Cape Breton for a special live installation at the new NSCC campus. Later that month, Carr invites the public to her annual Christmas open house in the Annapolis Valley, where she will be opening her studio for 2 full days in November.

“You can come watch us work, can see our work…and I usually have Light in the Forest elements all around.”

Stay connected and learn more here: https://www.hollycarr.com/  and www.lightintheforest.ca