Diane Farris

When I first moved to Florida, a Publix cashier commented on the bags I brought to the market: “Oh, there’s a French lady who brings bags, too.” Though there are more bag bearers now, it is heartening to discover the attuned community that is What’s Next for Earth.

My current work explores the resonance and – sometimes – the beauty of the nearby, the local. Local Light is part of that series, a luminous moment of billowing light that had to be witnessed before it was gone. The Think Resilience course with Richard Heinberg is a clear roadway through the current state of our environment and offers not only witness, but data, insights and action plans that will make a difference. What’s Next for Earth invites artists to participate in that change. I am grateful.

Diane’s website: dianefarris.com

Re/Generations

Painting

Recently, I’ve reflected upon the Yardbirds, friends who have gardened together for twenty years. We are a circle of women who gather monthly at one another’s homes to do outdoor tasks the hostess sets for us; then, we share lunch and stories around her table. These gardeners are also inspired cooks who create welcoming, elegant tables.

We weed, divide, plant, share seeds and seedlings, experiment and build; we have leaned out of a cherry picker to trim and traveled from Florida to North Carolina to help a gardener in need. There is that sense of enough and abundance when we gather. Parents and grandparents ourselves, we treasure memories of our elders who shared their love– and their love of nature - with us. As I “review and assess” my pieces for WNFE, I note the recurrent themes of children, books, plants and produce, community – and light. My intention is to find ways to pass along the joy, meaning, fellowship and stewardship of the Yardbirds. This fits with Heinberg’s advice to find actions “that will work for you, given your interests, skills and opportunities”.

The background of this photograph, Re/Generation, is a gardenia from my yard that came from a friend who received the fragrant gardenia “ancestors” from her beloved mother-in-law. The painting is one of my series on connections made - and connections missed - with nature, as expressed by the dangling, vintage phone. The woman overlooking the scene is my great grandmother, an homage to my own gardening lineage.
©
2024
  • Diane Farris

Seeing the Elephant; Leaving the Room

composition with a box, a child and a wooden elephant sculpturePhotograph

As so often happens, this image started one place and ended in another, process offering discovery. After our discussion of Heinberg’s Resilience in Major Sectors, I was aware of how knowledgeable the attendees were, how fine their work and ideas - and how often they have encountered cynicism and opposition from governing and business entities. Those experiences felt like a kind of elephant in the room, a discouragement we don’t want to spend too much time and energy discussing, but a weight we carry.

I reread Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes, which places a beloved elephant and its keeper inconveniently on some prime real estate. (I have some surprising history with that story, as discussed in the book section of my website. The lone elephant had been adopted as a symbol for its city, as heritage trees have been for a number of our own municipalities

I started sketching a kind of diptych with the elephant alone on the left, then maybe in my bicycle basket on the right and had begun photographing those elements when I remembered the dollhouse and children. They had been delighted as they pretended to be Giants, startling the unsuspecting dollhouse people. From there, Seeing the Elephant; Leaving the Room came together. I got out the dollhouse, placed an elephant in a room - and asked a child to look in. He was terrific and had his own thoughts about the metaphor. And of course, the children and this beautiful, poignant world we see unfurling into spring are foremost among the reasons we keep going. I’m grateful to What’s Next for Earth, MAHB and Richard Heinberg’s Think Resilience course for the opportunity to gather with and be inspired by others on this path.
©
2024
  • Diane Farris

When Enough Feels Like Abundance

View Gallery
Meeting Essential Community Needs brings to mind a time after college when I spent a few weeks in a small Italian hill town where the” food, water, energy, and money” Heinberg highlights as essential community needs were respected, savored, and shared. In that town and time, the warmth of community and the celebration of seasonal resources made “enough” often feel like abundance. The town square and very local market, the lively coffee bars, windows crowded with tomatoes and herbs, the small restaurants with a half dozen tables - especially the one where I was lucky enough to help out in the kitchen - made a pattern that has inspired me since.

The Pear Basket image was made years ago, an homage to that formative time and place. In it, Signora Adele rolls out pasta with a broom handle; a table awaits company and fresh produce spills from a market basket. Enough/Lemons is a new image - with Pear Basket nearby. Lemons from our tree represent today’s resources, awaiting shared preparation and enjoyment with children, family, and friends.

The page with “enough” is from a century-old dictionary. (It occurs next to “enormous,” which is defined as “excessive.”) We continue to seek new ways into our local community, resources, and systems, and we are grateful for the rich and welcoming community of WNFE.
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2023
  • Diane Farris

Weeping Fig with Book and Bags

Photograph

Richard Heinberg’s perspective on the centrality of early childhood education in building a resilient society and his examples brought to mind a local camp and the image of a classic child’s lunchbox. This summer, I prepared daily lunchboxes for a camp with strong ties to nature and to the children’s sense of well-being, both aspects of resilience education. I strove to avoid single use plastic and have a renewed appreciation of just one of the challenges parents face every school day.

In Weeping Fig with Book and Bags, a tree rises in front of paper lunch bags. The “sky” background is composed of plastic, persisting. The book illustration of trees in the foreground references the lively study of natural systems. The embrace of recent books on forest systems by scientist/scholars like Robin Wall Kimmerer and Suzanne Simard is encouraging, as is the community gathering around What’s Next for Earth.
©
2023
  • Diane Farris

Even

Photograph

Richard Heinberg’s summary sentence “Resilience and sustainability require justice” brought to mind an image of the classic scales of justice and WNFE’s current call. I found and began sketching my father’s old balance scale. As my first solutions (to many situations) often revolve around gathering, gardening, cooking and coming together around a welcoming table, food was a natural for the balance. And ,sculptural pears were on hand. Heinberg writes of “expanding the commons”, evoking a town square, village green, a farmer’s market, all images of gathering to share resources for the common good, the traditional “common weal”. The somewhat enigmatic “Even” appeared as a title early in the process, but Roget’s Thesaurus offered meanings that fit: “level, unbroken, on a par, proportionate, just…”.
©
2023
  • Diane Farris

Local Light

Photograph

April 2023

Local Light is part of an ongoing series of images on light, reflections and shadows. Working close to home in the past few years, I have been taken by the wisdom, sustenance and – often – the unexpected beauty of the close at hand, the local.

This photograph was taken recently, when a burst of unexpected light emanated from a familiar corner. What’s Next for Earth’s current call, Economic Relocalization, emphasizes attention to every possibility in nearby resources, “local economies with deep and ancient roots” (Richard Heinberg, excerpt from the Think Resilience course).
©
2023
  • Diane Farris
When Enough Is Abundance

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