View Purchase OptionsOil painting on canvas by Kathy Shute, Artist
Description by Heather Rice, Sustainability Educator
Kathy in Death Valley
“In Death Valley, where the distant patter of rain is long forgotten and must sometimes seem like a dream, a barrel cactus cheerfully blooms amid the cracked mud. As the top layer of earth peels away, it takes on the appearance of smooth shaved chocolate and reveals a deeper and equally impenetrable layer below.
We see the signs of rain—the thirsty mud that expanded then dried and curled up, the green of the cactus, the lizard—but in one of the planet’s hottest, driest places, rain is an occasional and capricious character.
The remarkable quality of life in the desert is its ability to conserve our planet’s singular and most precious resource: water, and the desert affords us an opportunity to reflect on our own conservation of water in our society.
With over 1 billion people lacking access to safe drinking water, perhaps this Barrel Cactus and Great Basin Collared Lizard may have a patient lesson for us. They both have an incredible capacity to tolerate Death Valley’s unforgiving environment through water and energy conservation strategies, and yet both live abundantly.
Inspiration For Crackin’ Up
Painted during a time when Shute was on sabbatical from the corporate world, the title of this painting, “Crackin’ Up,” may be subtly alluding to the fragility of the human state as much as it is about the mud she represents here.
There are rhythms in nature and in human lives and societies; we go through times of drought and dormancy, immense growth and bloom.
Just as the welcome rains are sure to come again to reinvigorate this diverse, geological desert wonder, Shute shows us that we can experience the seasons of our own lives with grace, by taking times of dormancy to store up energy and then share our gifts when the right season comes along.
This Barrel Cactus and Great Basin Collard Lizard were amid the mud flats at Death Valley, California in the March of 2005, one of the wettest years in recorded history for the area. The artist was intrigued by the rich color of the ground and surprised by the number of desert flowers that were in bloom.” — Heather Rice, Sustainability Educator
Crackin’ Up is available on mugs, note cards, and other personal gifts in my Gift Shop.
My vendor for quality print reproductions is Fine Art America – a well-respected art reproduction company. They utilize a process called Giclee, which captures the details of my original paintings.
Crackin’ Up reproductions can purchased on canvas, museum quality prints, posters, and more. Artwork can be purchased in any quantity and includes options for custom matting and framing.
