​​​​​​​Susan Evans Grove

​​"...We came with visions, but not with sight. We did not see or understand where we were or what was there, but destroyed what was there for the sake of what we desired..." Wendell Berry

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I was thinking about this Wendell Berry quote and Thomas Cole's prescient concern for the future of the American landscape when we sailed up the Hudson River to Catskill, N.Y. in the summer of 2023. It is still easy enough to imagine what Cole saw on his early sketching trips up the Hudson. It is also easy to see signs of the industrialism and its environmentally catastrophic effects that he knew would come for his beloved Hudson Valley. Since that trip I have attempted in several ways to illustrate that transition from a landscape that sustained us to one we are unsustainably depleting.

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The images are made blending historic paintings with my contemporary images. They are blended in photoshop and there is no AI used in creating them. This is a work in progress and may continue to evolve visually though not in sentiment. The name of the series is "After" and the images are all named ..."after" the painter with the year the painting was made and the year I blended it with my image.