​

​

“Through my work I hope to help people understand why we need to conserve nature and our wild lands in order to live in a healthy environment.”

​

 “While growing up in a rural mid-western town, I preferred to spend my time in the fields and woods. Captured by the tones and textures of what I saw there, I would draw the trees and cornfields of my home. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art in 2004 from the Cleveland Institute of Art, I moved to Montana in search of true wilderness. Since then, I have been making drawings and paintings of my experiences exploring and backpacking through the Flathead National Forest, the Mission Mountains, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I am constantly searching to find deeper meaning within the land.

​

My work focuses on the forces and cycles of nature. For many years I studied and created paintings on the life and death of the forest after a fire and the process of renewal. My current body of work is a study on the wetlands of Montana and their importance to the environment.

 

I'm fascinated by the way a place can stay within you; the memory of it. My process begins with connecting spiritually to the landscape. I think about the mood and why I'm drawn to the scene. I want my work to hold the emotion and feeling of nature. Often, I will incorporate into my painting’s natural materials from the earth to connect further to nature. The colors and tones of the work hold the mood of the landscape captured in each season and help tell the story of the transitions of an ever-changing landscape. I want to bring an awareness and understanding to the importance of protecting our forests and wetlands and the delicate balance of these sacred places.

 

-Dana Berardinis