VictoriaDeneroff.com

Trees, Paint, Science & Visions

My husband calls me a tree hugger. It is literally true, I’ve hugged many trees after first checking for ants. I only draw from life—there’s something missing from a photograph. I like to think it’s the energy of the living beings. Drawing from life is a way for me to know my subject, in fact sometimes the subject-object distinction fades when I am able to concentrate deeply.

After I’ve made a drawing, I sometimes paint it, as in “Golden Trout Wilderness” and “Kaweah River, South Fork.” The painting is not a replica of the original drawing, but rather a representation of my thoughts and feelings.

The Kaweah River in full flood is massive, powerful and dangerous. This painting is a recollection of the deep pools with submerged boulders, the surrounding woods haunted by deer and other silent watchers. I longed to dive into the brown greenness, but had to be satisfied with drawing. This is a large painting, 6’ X 7′, to match the grandeur of the Sierra wilderness.

Golden Trout Wilderness, 4’ x 5’, was a gentler subject, my view across a meadow into a deep woods on a warm August afternoon. In the Sierras at 6,000 feet these summer days are fleeting and life bursts forth. The air was buzzing with energy and I imagined the scene as light rather than matter. This is where science and art come together for me. Science is not only dry equations on a page, but a way to contemplate the interconnectedness of the universe. Science and art are both ways of knowing.