Diane Lundegaard, "Golden Shiners", ink and mixed-media on paper, 12" x 16"

Conservation, Aesthetics and Freshwater Ecology  

Recent nationwide reports have indicated the increasing need for the conservation and preservation of our freshwater resources. Although marine waters also have conservation issues, they have benefited from the work of those members of the artistic community who champion the cause to protect the marine environment.  

Artists, writers, film makers have eloquently described and documented, as has done Jacques Cousteau, the particular wonders of the earth’s great oceans thus underscoring the need for their protection and conservation. Unfortunately, freshwater has not yet benefited from a similar treatment. There is still to be an artistic community concerned with protecting this particular natural resource. Yet, ironically, life depends on freshwater for survival. 

In addition to its life sustaining force, in the waters of the pond, river, creek and stream there awaits a multitude of aesthetic considerations to be explored. As an artist whose subject matter focuses on this particular ecology, I have found suitable material to challenge the technical concerns of the painter: shifting spatial relationships, light distortions, free floating form, etc., all to be worked on a two dimensional surface, yet given the ability, as if it were, to leap from the plane and into the viewer's mind with the power to engender not only appreciation for this natural resource, but also public spirited reaction. It is my hope that other fine artists will also champion this cause.

Diane Lundegaard, BFA, MA, SUNY at Stony Brook