Myrtle Tree Arts Journal

Featured Artists and Contributors Voices from the Literary and Visual Arts The festival's exploration of human-plant relationships extends into the realm of words and images through the contributions of Lara Gularte, Kate Marianchild, Jessica Carew Craft, Andie Thrams, Corina del Carmel, and Susan Hayne . These and other accomplished writers, poets, and visual artists bring decades of experience exploring the intersections between environmental awareness, creative expression, and community building. Gathering of Indigenous Voices and Wisdom This year's festival promises to be an extraordinary convergence of traditional knowledge, contemporary artistry, and ecological awareness, featuring Stan Padilla, Kimberly ShiningStar Petree, Christina Almendariz, Sara Raskie and Tony Cervantes, Marcela Tayaba, Phillip Moore, Mignon Geli, Chuck Kritzon, and Nathan Kuan Salazar-Uhlmeyer . These diverse artists bring a rich tapestry of cultural perspectives and creative disciplines, from ...

RIPE AREA is a play on the term "riparia", the land adjacent to and influenced by water. The waters of the South Fork of American River tumble downstream in the crush of ice melt, rushing in currents, propelled by dam releases, and slowing along sandy flatlands. Wet, fluid fingers fan out among cattails, quietly seeping into sodden ground.  Over time, h umans have changed the river, eroded its banks, mined its tributaries, drained its meadows, and farmed its floodplains. The waters of the South Fork of the American River , for example, are contained by t hree major reservoirs and other smaller man-made reservoirs  El Dorado County. The major dams are  at  Slab Creek Reservoir built in 1967, Chili Bar Reservoir built in 1964 and Folsom Lake Reservoir built in 1955 .  Headwaters of the South Fork of the American River collect in high-altitude Lake Audrain, captured in the image I created, above, for the music and underwater sound art installation, Music for 33 Dr...

History is part of us even when we are unaware of it. I’d been living in and hiking around the Foothills for years without knowing much about the complex factors that shaped the history of this heavily forested area. I set out to learn more about what has brought us to the perilous wildfire conditions of the present moment. With the Caldor Fire of 2021 taking out more than 200 homes and 250,000 acres, and the increase of mega-fires across California generally, wildfire brings a strong connection to grief around the disruption of family life, the loss of generations of trees, damage to soil and wildlife, and release of masses of carbon. What historical forces might be relevant to understand where we are now? The forest holds a history that can explain our current state. Last fall I had a conversation with Tony Valdez, an energetic rock climber and passionate storyteller who worked for 37 years with the US Forest Service. Tony lent me his copy of the book by Timothy Egan, The Big Burn ....

FIRE/LAND: Knowing the Territory is an exploration using music, media, art, and performance. As a public arts experience, FIRE/LAND : Knowing the Territory is a forest journey and exploration of national and local history, diverse cultural perspectives, and scientific efforts, to deepen art appreciation and inspire community engagement around ongoing wildfire experiences.  The project is an opportunity to bring together a broad spectrum of residents to examine, reflect through the lens of art on a very real threat, its attendant anxieties, and many factors that have brought us to these current conditions. As a personal creative journey, the piece is being birthed through my own learning process with people I meet, including from those from the US Forest Service, CAL FIRE and other agencies, to wildfire survivors, scientists, land stewards, Indigenous culture keepers and other artists. The idea for the new piece, FIRE/LAND, is rooted in personal and collective trauma experienc...