Artist Creates Spectacularly Painted Logs to Show Us Nature is in Trouble

These works are not just spectacularly painted, but they are painted with a distinct meaning in mind. Artist Alison Moritsugu paints these nature landscapes on tree trunks that mimic the art styles of 18th and 19th century to juxtapose the idyllic images of nature with tangible results of her destruction. Moritsugu’s art is supposed to remind people that nature isn’t just there; it has to be protected.

“These landscapes, by artists such as Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Edwin Church, were deeply rooted in the political constructs of the time and depicted the land as a bountiful Eden, a limitless frontier ripe for conquest,” Alison Moritsugu writes in her artist statement. “I take these images out of their familiar context, the framed canvas, and paint directly on wood slices with bark intact. These landscapes appear as an homage to the idyllic art of the Hudson River School yet, by viewing the painting’s surface, the cross section of a tree, any sense of nostalgia or celebration of nature is countered by the evidence of its destruction”

Do you think she successfully gets her message across?

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