Artwork of Diane Caudillo

Paintings of Relationships (Eros and Ecology)

Themes I’ve been working with, which may or may not be obvious to the viewer, include climate change and psychological integration. In all paintings, relationships are important – the formal elements of shape, color, line, composition, and contrast. In all aspects of life, too, relationships can mean life or death, pleasant or agonizing: we are learning about the relationships between human activity and the climate, between ocean currents and crop failure, heated oceans and hurricanes. In ecological gardening, one cares about relationships between elements such as soil organisms and moisture content, nutrients, insects, birds, farmworkers, and the community. Living here in the redwood region, we see it all the time: the ocean, the rivers, the salmon, the redwoods, the soils, the logging, the fishing, the people and their cultures. Touch one of these, and the quality of that touch resonates throughout the whole system. Nothing exists alone; we all make up and affect the whole web of life. That’s why we need to tend the relationships within our psyches, too.

Slow but steady progress through careful cultivation is what I aim for, both in my practice of painting and in my psychological development. In this way, I hope to become increasingly in harmony with the web of life.