Spring Greetings from the Arizona Grasslands. I hope that 2024 finds you all well. These past few years have been both challenging and inspirational, and my work with the grasses continues to reach new audiences to offer joy and resilience. My artists’ book, the folio “Native Grasses of the Apache Highlands”, has now been placed in a selection of University Library Special Collections, where it can inspire interdisciplinary dialogue across the spectrum. From art to science to humanities – with an emphasis on performing arts – the choral arts especially. It is my intention to help weave a thread of reverence back to this precious blue orb that we get to call home.
The schools that have it now include:
University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA Library, History of Medicine and the Sciences Special Collections
Where it is used in workshops on perceptual diversity.
University of Arizona
Where it serves its home community.
University of Wyoming
Where it is available to both range sciences and fine arts. Blog coverage.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
where it connects to the legacy of Aldo Leopold
Yale Divinity School
Where it available to the Forum on Religion and Ecology, Institute for Sacred Music, Sacred Arts Initiative, Yale Forest Forum, and relates to Western Americana. This folio is dedicated to Jane Goodall.
At any of these colleges, you are welcome to spend time with the folio artwork in the quiet comfort of a library setting. I invite you to do so, and to use this art! The voices of the grasses have just begun to make themselves heard, and it is time for yours to join the refrain.
If you would like to be involved with the next university placement, please contact me directly. There are sponsorship opportunities available.
The large format traveling exhibition of Native Grasses of the Apache Highlands, (last shown at the Tucson Airport), will be heading towards the northern plains in 2025, to collaborate with the great choral traditions at Minot State and beyond, where our nation’s Scandinavian cultural heritage has given us such a rich musical backbone.
My website has the folio works on it, and I invite you to follow my new work on Instagram and Facebook – Matilda Essig – Studio. These social media platforms get updated continuously. The new work goes beyond natives, and beyond grasses, further expressing some of the greater ecological realities of the day. Please contact me directly for further information and pricing if you are interested in a print.
With all best wishes,
Matilda
