Art/Act: Local – Wild Places

The wild places are where we began. When they end so do we. - David Brower

The David Brower Center was pleased to present Art/Act: Local - Wild Places, featuring the work of four Bay Area artists examining the importance of connecting people to wilderness in order for them to appreciate, understand, and ultimately protect our natural environment. Please view the digital gallery below (photography by Matt Garamy).

The work of these artists varies greatly, from the microscopic seed images of Hagit Cohen to the grandiose landscapes of Alan Sonneman to the evocative backyard paintings of Ellen Little to the mesmerizing seaweed cyanotypes of Ann Holsberry, but all is infused with the desire to celebrate nature - her beauty and her resiliency. These sacred places have taken on even more importance during the global pandemic by providing a respite from fear, calm in the chaos, and inspiration in the face of so much unknown.

Ellen Little

Art/Act: Local - Wild Places. On view in the David Brower Center in summer 2020. Photos by Matt Garamy.
Goat Hill 13. Watercolor on paper, 2020.
To Ellen, the view from Billy Goat Hill is especially gorgeous in winter. The fog, the winter light and the beautiful lines of the bare branches make this her favorite view in all of San Francisco.
Goat Hill 13 detail.
Goat Hill 12 (left) and Goat Hill 3 (right). Watercolor on paper, 2017.
Summer brings roses, nasturtiums and rock purslane to the gardens surrounding Billy Goat Hill. If you look closely at this painting you will find hidden in the greenery a California newt (Taricha torosa), a moth, and a Robin red breast (Turdus migratorius).
Goat Hill 12 detail.
In spring the hillside explodes with grass and wildflowers including cluster lilies (Brodiaea californica). When Ellen first started painting Billy Goat Hill, she thought all the grass was the same but since discovered that is not true. The more closely she looks, the more different grasses she finds.
Goat Hill 3 detail.
Goat Hill 14. Watercolor on paper, 2020.
Ellen Little paints seasonally. Whatever she finds on her morning walk is what she paints that day. When working on this painting in the dead of winter, Rock Purslane (Calandrinia spectabilis) was one of the only flowers blooming.
Goat Hill 13. Watercolor on paper, 2020.
Created especially for this exhibition Art/Act: Local – Wild Places, Goat Hill 15 has changed over the past months just as the hillside that inspired it has changed. In January, Ellen started with a bare hillside for the background, and as the grass grew and the flowers bloomed, she added layer upon layer. First came the Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana), then the California poppies (Eschscholzia Californica) then the wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) and finally 3 bumblebees, two moths and a banana slug.

Ellen Little’s work is inspired and guided by the natural things she finds in her backyard and on her morning walks through San Francisco. She is fascinated by how nature adapts and evolves to fit into the built environment. By magnifying that which is small and temporary in nature – flowers, grasses, moths, dead birds and other ephemera, the images become powerful reminders of the beauty and importance of urban green spaces. The Goat Hill Series is inspired by Billy Goat Hill, a wild hillside near Ellen’s house that she cherishes and visits almost daily.

Below, learn more about Ellen Little with our physically distant artist video spotlight.

Hagit Cohen

Art/Act: Local - Wild Places. On view in the David Brower Center in summer 2020. Photos by Matt Garamy.
(from left: 1) Erodium Seeds – Five Seeds. Archival pigment print on art paper, 2018. (2) Erodium Seeds – Calligraphy. Archival pigment print on art paper, 2018. (3) Erodium Seeds – Nine Seeds. Archival pigment print on art paper, 2018. (4) Erodium Seeds – Six Seeds. Archival pigment print on art paper, 2018.
When touched, the Erodium seed unleashes a movement in which its lines swirl in a circular motion, using its directionality to bury itself. Hagit finds the gestures created by this movement powerful, likening them to a whirling dance or strokes by a calligraphy master. She finds herself “drawing" with the seeds and their shadows, like a choreographer composing a scene to express a feeling and evoke an emotional response. The seeds, delicate, yet tenacious, reveal the fragility and strength of nature.
White Canvas with Green Leaves. Archival pigment print on silk, 2018.
During an artist residency in Aspen, Colorado, Hagit visited the Benedict Music Tent early one evening. She was struck by the shadows of the Aspen trees dancing on the tent’s canvas in the evening light. The tree's shadows created a lyrical play of textures, curved lines, and “drawings” on the tent’s surface. For a brief moment, the shadows of the Aspen trees turned an ordinary canvas structure into a space of sanctity and beauty.
Hagit Cohen seeks to elicit a visceral response in the viewer, rendering in large scale seed pods gathered on East Bay trails and elsewhere. She isolates these pods on a white background and presents them as sculptural objects to endow them with symbolic power. Nothing is too small to be the object of wonder or to hold powerful significance in the cycle of life. The seed pods represent a potential for growth and transformation.
Top, left–right: Banksia Pod, Australia (2016), Japanese Maple Pod, Colorado (2017). Bottom, left–right: Monkey Comb Pod, Ecuador (2016), Lotus Pod, California (2016). Archival pigment prints.
Top, left–right: Chestnut Pod, Washington (2015), Poppy Seed Pod, California (2015). Bottom, left–right: Bottle Tree Pod, South Africa (2016), Buckeye Pod, California (2016). Archival pigment prints.

Hagit Cohen's work fosters an awareness of the interconnectedness between humans and the natural world. Her large-scale images give small, overlooked, natural objects agency. She wants to show that even the most fragile elements in nature can take center stage and hold power in the campaign for the survival of life on the planet. Hagit creates contemplative, sacred spaces that evoke a ritual experience. She captures the interchange of our human made world and nature’s expression, and challenges others to think differently about the concepts of home and wilderness, large and small, active and still.

Hagit’s practice includes walking outdoors, looking, finding, and photographing elements of nature that attract her attention. Her process is intuitive. With time, she narrows her selection to reveal the narrative the selected images hold.

Below, hear from Hagit herself in our physically distant artist spotlight.

Alan Sonneman

Art/Act: Local - Wild Places. On view at the David Brower Center in summer 2020. Photos by Matt Garamy.
(Left:) Mt. Emerson and Piute Craigs, John Muir Wilderness, Inyo National Forest. Oil on linen, 2019. (Right:) Mt. Winchell at Sunset, John Muir Wilderness, Aug. 2, 2012, 7:38 PM, Kings Canyon National Park. Oil on linen, 2019.
Mt. Emerson at 13,210 ft. is located on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada mountains outside of Bishop, California in Owens Valley. It was named by the naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club John Muir after Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th Century philosopher who inspired Henry David Thoreau as well as Muir.
“Nature is a language and every new fact one learns is a new word; but it is not a language taken to pieces and dead in the dictionary, but the language put together into a most significant and universal sense. I wish to learn this language, not that I may know a new grammar, but that I may read the great book that is written in that tongue.” From “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Dusy Basin is located in the northeast corner of Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. It is reached by trail from South Lake over Bishop Pass at nearly 12,000 ft., a distance of over 6 miles and a gain in elevation of 2152 ft. It is bordered on its eastern flank by a group of peaks comprising the Pacific Crest ranging in order from north to south: Mt. Agassiz at 13893 ft., Mt. Winchell at 13775 ft., Thunderbolt Peak at 14003 ft., and North Palisade at 14242 ft. This is the highest ridgeline in the Sierra after Mt. Whitney.
Dusy Basin is located in the northeast corner of Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. It is reached by trail from South Lake over Bishop Pass at nearly 12,000 ft., a distance of over 6 miles and a gain in elevation of 2152 ft. It is bordered on its eastern flank by a group of peaks comprising the Pacific Crest ranging in order from north to south: Mt. Agassiz at 13893 ft., Mt. Winchell at 13775 ft., Thunderbolt Peak at 14003 ft., and North Palisade at 14242 ft. This is the highest ridgeline in the Sierra after Mt. Whitney.
Dusy West 3. Looking west from upper Dusy Basin towards Le Conte Canyon at Sunset, July 28, 2008, 7:25 PM, Kings Canyon National Park. Oil on linen, 2009.
Dusy West 2. Looking west from upper Dusy Basin towards Le Conte Canyon at Sunset, July 28, 2008, 6:55 PM, Kings Canyon National Park. Oil on linen, 2009.
Dusy West 1. Looking west from upper Dusy Basin towards Le Conte Canyon at Sunset, July 27, 2008, 7:27 PM, Kings Canyon National Park. Oil on linen, 2009.

In an age where artificiality dominates our experience, the pursuit of the real becomes a radical act. Alan Sonneman’s work is a conceptual pilgrimage of sorts. For the last 20 years every summer he has journeyed deep into the Sierra Nevada to find a place of serenity and solitude. There he stays for several days documenting his observations – the changing light, the weather, the immensity of the forms before him, a sense of time and place. Time seems to stand still there, it is a place apart from human action.

Alan re-presents through painting this pursuit of the miraculous. His art practice is a search for something universal – he has no interest in interpretation or self-expression. Alan’s paintings become a meditation on time, presence and transcendence, raising awareness of the world in which we live.

Below, learn more about Alan's background in our physically distant artist spotlight.

Ann Holsberry

Art/Act: Local - Wild Places. On view in the David Brower Center in summer 2020.
Traces. Cyanotype on paper with acrylic, 2016.
Traces was created by exposing emulsion-coated paper to sunlight in urban and rural locations along avian migratory pathways. Ann used found bird wings in the exposures to commemorate individual birds and acknowledge the loss of their natural habitat.
(Above, left:) Incoming Tide. Cyanotype on paper, 2018. (Above, right:) Taking Flight. Cyanotype and wax on paper on panel, 2014. (Below, left:) Confluence. Cyanotype, wax, oil paint, and sediment on paper on panel, 2016. (Below, right:) Adrift. Cyanotype and wax on paper on panel, 2018.
Ann created this work by coating the paper with an iron-based photosensitive emulsion and exposing it to sunlight, moonlight, and moisture in a redwood forest for over 20 hours. Algae and sand gathered from the mouth of the Albion River on the Mendocino Coastline were used in the exposure. Once dry, the image was coated with a thin layer of beeswax.
To create this piece, Ann applied an iron-based photosensitive emulsion to paper and exposed it to sunlight. Sediment and water collected from the mouth of the Navarro River, Mendocino, were used in the exposure, leaving white unexposed areas behind. Once dry, the image was further developed with wax and oil paint.
(Left panels:) Sea Forest Series, #1–5. Cyanotype on silk, 2018. (Center panel:) Sea Forest Series, #6. Cyanotype on silk with embroidery, 2020.
Specially created for this exhibition, Sea Forest #6 was made by applying an iron-based photosensitive emulsion to silk and exposing it to sunlight in Codornices Park in Berkeley. Sea kelp and sand gathered from Seal Rock Beach in Monterey were used in the exposure, leaving white unexposed areas behind. Once dry, the piece was further developed with embroidery.
These images were created by exposing silk to sunlight after coating it with an iron-based photosensitive emulsion. Sea kelp and sand placed on the fabric during exposure left white areas behind. The kelp and sand were gathered along the Mendocino Coastline, near the offshore Albion Cove Kelp Restoration Project.

Ann Holsberry’s artwork is a direct expression of her collaboration with natural phenomena. She seeks out wild places where she can work outdoors, incorporating the earth as both muse and material. Through the dynamic photographic process of cyanotype, Ann uses sunlight to capture direct impressions of plants, sand, and other found objects from her surroundings. Due to the iron-based chemistry involved, a deep Prussian blue predominates.

From gathering materials to exposing the final artwork, the entire process is intensely physical. Holsberry begins in nature, where she searches for specimens to document such as endangered sea kelp beds off the California coast. She then moves to the darkroom, where she paints, drips, and pours light sensitive emulsion onto paper or fabric. Once it has dried, she brings the prepared substrate to a site-specific location, shielding it from the sun with a tarp while she collects materials. She then works in darkness under the tarp to lay the found objects (and sometimes her own body) onto the fabric or paper. When the tarp is removed and the surface is exposed to the sun, objects blocking the light leave a white unexposed area behind. The resulting silhouettes have both clarity and mystery against the deep blue background.

Since Ann composes her artwork mostly in darkness, and is often at the whim of weather conditions, she relinquishes some control of the outcome and embraces chance and the unexpected. “My art practice is continuously propelled into new, experimental directions as a result of working with unpredictable elements in interconnections around me, and inspires in me a profound appreciation for my small place in the natural world.”

Learn more about Ann's work in her artist spotlight below.

Art/Act: Local - Wild Places is made possible through the generosity of the Berkeley Civic Arts Program & Civic Arts Commission, East Bay Municipal Utilities District and North Berkeley Wealth Management.

[cover image detail: installation of Ann Holsberry's cyanotypes on silk, Sea Kelp Forest series, 2018-2020. Photo by Matt Garamy.]

Art/Act: Local – Wild Places

Ellen Little

Hagit Cohen

Alan Sonneman

Ann Holsberry

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