Long Term Ecological Reflections Program
HJ ANDREWS EXPERIMENTAL FOREST
In April 2019 I spent two weeks at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon as an Artist and Writer in Residence. The Andrews is comprised of 15,800 acres of land set aside for scientific research, including studies that span hundreds of years through the Long Term Ecological Research Program. Running in parallel to the research program is the Long Term Ecological Reflections Program, which invites artists and writers to contribute their work created at the Forest’s research locations to a corollary 200 year collection of creative work.
The Andrews contains many of the few remaining intact groves of old growth trees - some of which are over 700 years old - and the forest is a hub of forest and stream science. As a resident, I was immersed in the forest every day and spent hours painting outside, even in incessant rain. The resulting paintings are visible manifestations of the environment around me, co-created with a place.
CO-CREATED WITH PLACE. These five paintings were created sitting on the same log beneath my favorite Hemlock Tree. Each morning at 10am I returned to the tree for 60-90 minutes to paint part of the forest I could see from my spot. With the damp bark of the Hemlock at my back and drops of water falling from its branches (also called throughfall) each painting became a collaboration. If you look closely at the two paintings on the left, you will see white spots in the paint; each is a droplet of water.
RAIN PAINTINGS. Each painting represents a snapshot of a rainstorm that moved over the forest. Starting at 4:00pm and ending at 9:00am the next day I created a painting “sample” every few hours. Every drop left a visible mark on the paper, represented by the white dots, swirls, and starburst patterns. The three paintings in the middle were created at night.
THE SPACE BETWEEN. During my residency it rained for 11 of my 14 days on-site. The resulting heavy skies and grey light compressed my view of the tree canopy above and accentuated the spaces between the trees. The shape of these spaces tells a story: left is the site of a large windstorm blowdown that took out three old trees, middle is the single space in an old growth grove, and right is the space around two snags.