© Laurel Nevarte, Image courtesy of the artist.

December 22, 2021

Amie Potsic interviews artists and medical professionals Pia De Girolamo and Laurel Nevarte on Art Watch Radio about their collaborative artwork inspired by the healing aspects of nature during the pandemic. Communicating via social media, their collaboration between the east and west coasts began with calming visits to the Huntington Gardens in Los Angeles and later inspired paintings created in Philadelphia. Their work is a testament to the ability of art and nature to help us connect and heal despite being isolated by the virus and distance.

Pia De Girolamo: Artist Statement

My modernist landscape paintings, whether presenting a natural or an urban landscape, project the essence of place which arises from interacting forms and color combinations.

In the case of the Roman and Italian urban landscape, these forms encompass a variety of geometric shapes, including apartment blocks, triangular roofs, and domes but there is also an interplay with natural forms like the iconic umbrella pines and other trees that line the street or are found in the parks.

In my mountain and Arctic series landscapes, massive forms of stone or ice, the surrounding emptiness, a sense of gravity, the fluidity of water, and the presence of animal inhabitants dictate how I use color and shape.

I begin with sketches, small paintings and photographs in the field. I bring these materials back to the studio, where I explore what makes these places beautiful, mysterious, or exciting to me . The paintings evolve; while some refer to real places, others spring from composite memories of shapes or vistas.

I began my most recent botanical series during the travel ban of the Covid 19 pandemic. Though based on a friend’s photograph posted to Instagram, it is the same interplay of shapes and color and an underlying sense of deep emotion that I experience in the presence of nature that drew me to reinterpret the floral specimens on canvas.

Laurel Nevarte: Artist Statement

Art and life
I have always been compelled to surround myself with beautiful handmade objects. Ours was a household where gifts and cards were not purchased but created. With depression-era parents, everything was recycled, so that scraps of paper, pressed flowers, shells, fabric, magazines, buttons, ribbons, gum wrappers, and even salvaged cotton balls were all fodder for assemblage. My maternal grandfather's poetry-filled; hand-painted flower cards are treasured family heirlooms. Grade school shoebox dioramas were a joy to stage with my mom (a Pratt Art school grad). Hours were spent watching my father carve and cast waxed dental restorations fabricated with unimaginable precision.

With the misguided idea that I would embrace a practical yet artistic endeavor, I also chose a career in dentistry. To balance life as a young professional and mom, I fashioned projects to enhance our surroundings and felt compelled to sew window curtains, pillow covers, and baby bedding. I would dress doorways with silk flower wreaths and cut matte frames displaying travel photos and thrift market vintage postcards. Ultimately, I managed to launch an online beaded jewelry shop Bead after dark jewelry to fill the painful void felt once my college-bound son left home.

Cultivating my garden
My husband and I are wholly invested in tending to our drought-tolerant garden landscape and enjoy weekly nature walks and nursery visits as an extension of this pastime. The camera has become a natural means to chronicle plant growth to share with East Coast family and friends and to catalogue a wish list for inspiration. Photography never had much of an appeal for me as the equipment was cumbersome and the dynamics of using an SLR camera proved too disappointing. After a mishap where improperly loaded film failed to capture a fresh snowfall, I literally never touched the camera again.

My father chronicled our family history as his prized polaroid instamatic camera accompanied all holiday events and gatherings. He alone would adjust the bellows, flash the image, then slowly peel back the film exposing the capture to light. I can still smell the emulsion and sense the buzz of excitement as we huddled around to watch the photo magically emerge. So not until recently has technology advanced to the point where my iPhone allows for that instant gratification minus the unwieldy armamentarium. Fortunately, the use of the camera is wholly intuitive for me and image refinement is a welcome and ongoing obsession.

Cultivating my garden is a natural anesthetic for the distressing isolation of this pandemic. The strain of routine viral exposure and the restrictive suffocating protective gear has taken a toll on my psyche. Our weekly pilgrimage to the world-renowned Huntington gardens with its charismatic and often anthropomorphic exotic cacti and perennials is now my salvation. Weekly nature walks and photos are the antidote to fear and depression, and the satisfaction of manipulating and clarifying an artistic vision gives a measure of control missing from my daily existence.

What started as a way to record a garden's growth has become a window to the outer world. I was pleasantly surprised to find an audience and following for my photography on Instagram and have most happily reconnected with my childhood friend and artist Pia De Girolamo. A former physician, Pia was inspired by my posts to collaborate and paint lovely and unique abstractions of my flowers and plants.

Without the hassle of having to establish and maintain a messy workspace this has been the most satisfying outlet ever. Creativity at its best gifts a Zen experience with a welcome lack of awareness for the passage of time and witnessing the beauty and resilience of nature gives me the perspective and enthusiasm to brave life's ongoing challenges.