SMI Academy Square Gallery
33 Plymouth Street
Montclair, NJ 07042
HOURS: Mon – Fri, 7am – 7pm
or by appointment
A photographer and printmaker, Lucas finds her primary inspiration in nature. Her focus has been to illustrate our connection to the natural world by revealing the personality of a place or subject as she sees it. Every image is named based on the character or the place it depicts and/or the effect of the environment on the subject. The intention is that the viewer will feel an emotional draw to these nature “portraits” as they would a human subject and that they will see something in nature with new eyes.
Academy Square Gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 7am to 7pm.
Artist’s Statement
The work in this exhibit is a culmination of nearly 40 years photographing the natural world, both in the wild and in our communities. It began when I rediscovered my love of trees while hiking in The Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts in the 1980’s. Among the trees in the forest, I felt a strong sense of belonging and reverence. This feeling led to several series of photographs taken to engage in and document the experience of interaction with nature. We often miss the opportunity to find this connection unless we give our full attention to that mysterious but common element of our existence. The part of us that is affected by nature’s healing power is universal and a privilege of our heritage as inhabitants of this world.
These groups of images come from five series that focus on some of the different ways I’ve experienced nature. “Tree Portraits” is the first series that strives to explore the nature or “personality” of individual trees. I focus on the trees that tell stories, awe, or communicate with their environment in a visual and emotional way. “Lake Garfield” is a portrait of the lake, viewing it from the water using a kayak and a toy Holga camera with film. This lake has been a pool of remembrance for me whenever I’m near it. “Found Collage” and “In the Garden” are explorations in color after many years of only shooting in black and white. Color work led me to explore the abstract in nature and see subtleties that might not be appreciated in a monotone print. The ecoprints in the group of images called “Moths to flame” are not photographs but prints made by steaming leaves and plants onto paper to release their natural dyes. Photographs of moths were later taken and photo-transferred onto the prints. In this series, moth images are paired with the essence of fallen leaves to symbolize our continual pattern of the destruction and conservation of our world.
My hope is for the viewer to experience some of what I have seen and felt during these explorations and to see something in nature with new eyes; the discoveries are endless.