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| Willows on the Water Oil |
Artist Statement: As we begin another Hurricane season, it is impossible to forget the devastating floods that Hurricane Harvey brought to our hometown of Houston less than a year ago. So many people displaced, so many who lost everything in this busy metropolis as the waters continued to rise engulfing everything and everyone in their paths. Houston is a city built along low lying bayous, with little urban planning, especially for rising sea levels, heavy coastal rains, and the inevitable hurricanes that pass this way. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to visit Bastrop State Park shortly after the waters from Harvey receded. This is the scarred “lost pines” region of Texas, with its loblolly pines, genetically distinct from those pines around it, which likely formed duringthe last glacial period of the Pleistocene Era almost 12,000 years ago. The area had been devastated by fires six years earlier. As I hiked through the park, among the burnt skeletons of century old pines where a thick forest once stood, there were also washed-out ravines left in the red soil as the remnants of Harvey had moved inland. This is a place where glaciers, fires and floods had all passed... and in it were the new growth of “Willows on the Water” and small seedling pines putting new roots in the iron rich soil. It is a reminder of the power of nature, thehope for renewal, and the urgent need to protect our planet. Bio: Kelly Best Bourgeois grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas where she developed a profound love of nature from the ever-changing scenery and wildlife along the Texas Gulf Coast. She began painting with local mentor Dick Turner at the age of 11, then moved to Austin, TX where she earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Plan II at the University of Texas. After earning her M.D. degree in Houston, TX she spent time in the art filled and history rich city of New Orleans, later settling in Houston where she married, raised her family, and continued her studies with local artists, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts Glassell School of Art, and the Art League of Houston. |
