Deep Dive: Lac la Hache Wildflowers by Lori Anne McKague

Artist: Lori Anne McKague
Puzzle Designer: Siri Olson, Lori Anne McKague, Jasen Robillard
Dimensions: 23 x 30 cm (irregular edge)
Piece Count: 200
Difficulty: 3 out of 5

Within the colourful wildflowers, our puzzle designers have uncovered (and hidden) several of the fauna and flora you can find exploring the 19km shoreline of Lac la Hache (BC), where artist Lori Anne McKague found inspiration for this brightly saturated & potpourri of wildflower doodles.

After 40 years as a professional graphic designer, Lori has retreated into a life of creative leisure in Chilliwack, BC, Canada. Her passion for the weird and wonderful has taken her creative pursuits into the realm of doodle design. She hand draws doodles using black ink, then colours in the outlines using a variety of pens and pencils. These patterns are then scanned, tiled and replicated onto various creative oddities. You can find these, as well as her one-of-a-kind originals at her personal webstore.

Links

Lightly watermarked reference image
Note, reference images are watermarked to prevent unauthorized printing of our artist's work, as well as copycat puzzles which have become common since 2020.

Lori's Typewise WhatNot Shop

Lac la Hache BC Provincial Park Info

Shop: Lori Anne McKague - Lac La Hache Wildflowers 

Siri's Puzzle Design Notes

As a creative person, my work doesn’t feel complete until I make clever things. I like the art I craft to provoke deeper thought, to have the subtle layered underneath the obvious. From a young age, I have always been inspired by unnoticed things, the details that most people pass by. Maybe it’s because I’m a quiet person, but small and silent things hold my interest.

Sometimes art feels too loud, too much for my brain. Art often overwhelms me by the sheer scope of its possibilities. Design on the other hand feels more constrained and is actually the domain where I come alive. The fact that design has a destination—a target audience and outcomes—guides the process of creating for me. 

Those design parameters form the boundaries of the box that I then work to think outside of. Kudos to the artists who embrace that vulnerable, boxless unknown.

When I looked at Lori Anne McKague’s “Lac La Hache Wildflowers” artwork, I first saw a moth. Perhaps I’m biased because I have a moth tattoo, but I was most excited to find homes for insect whimsies. I wanted to design bug whimsies that could be seen and experienced as beautiful, approachable, and even enjoyable.

Then, I noticed all the eyeballs of all the other creatures that could be hiding in the flowers looking back. Yes, flowers are pretty, but if you looked past the petals, what might you see?

The collaboration process was a blend of Lori's artistic vision, my designer imagination, and Jasen’s inventive expertise. I wanted to honour Lori's doodle shapes, which embodied her experience of camping at Lac la Hache. Tackling my first puzzle design was somewhat daunting, however the act of creating is inviting when there is no ‘right answer’.

        

Whimsy List

Multi-piece whimsies or Whimwhams

• Large blue wildflower
• Moth
• Butterfly
• Butterfly Chrysalis
• Stink Bug
• Owl
• Whimsical Bird
• Skunk
• Campfire

Single piece

• 6x Wildflowers
• 2x Caterpillars
• Bee
• Ladybug
• Termite
• Dragonfly
• Chipmunk
• Duck
• Kingfisher
• Hummingbird
• Chickadee
• Turtle
• Rabbit
• Blackberries
• Oak Leaf
• Axe (Hache)
• Artist Initials