CRUEL SEASON
Cruel Season: Artists Reflecting on Drought and Fire
An Exhibit at the Museum of Ventura County, California
September 13, through November 23, 2014
(photos by Hiroko Yoshimoto and Bob Chianese)
California is facing one of the most severe droughts on record—the effects can be seen in recent wildfires and in the ebbing shores of our lakes and reservoirs. This exhibition shows how local artists have responded to these disasters.
As exhibit poet Robert Louis Chianese states,
“Art can motivate; people must act.”
Susan Petty . Richard Amend . Hiroko Yoshimoto . Terri Laine .
John Nichols . Robert Chianese . Bill Dewey . Myra Toth .
The Ventura Hillsides, With Drought and Fire
Exhibition Essay with Excerpts in the Gallery By Bob Chianese
The rolling hills behind the city of Ventura create a dramatic backdrop. They are part of the city’s living landscape and shape its urban plan. We notice them every day.
They’re in trouble.
Our foothills are under the stress of droughts—a long-term regular one and a short-term severe one afflicting a whole swatch of the western US. A rainy season this winter now seems unlikely, so they may remain un-replenished for a fourth year. They would need years of normal rain to catch up.
May 2014 was the hottest month ever recorded and now this June too (ncdc.noaa.gov). Southern California summers have heated up 1.32 F degrees per decade just since 1970 (weather.com). This evidences local weather change.
It’s no secret: the global climate itself is changing—it’s getting hotter everywhere. Our burning of fossil fuels is a likely cause—droughts, hotter temperatures, excessive rains, more violent storms.
Drought effects are well known: dried up plant life, animals without plant or animal food, sun-blocking dust on plants that further diminishes them near and far, and, when rains come to our hills, erosion and debris flows. Then of course, the fires.
Our best defense against these natural disasters is wise use of water. Simply put, we must conserve all the water we can— for everyday use, for sustainable agriculture, for municipal waste systems; and for fire fighting, for resupplying ground waters, for healthy rivers and streams—though we can’t water the hillsides.
Some advocate desalination of ocean water. This can exacerbate the problem since it tends to foster even more water-dependent growth and development in a naturally arid region.
“Doing with less,” much less water that is, may be a tough prescription for most of us. But it may lead us finally to learn to live wisely on the actual land we love.
The drought is here, the fires may come. These works of art and poems present them both as reminders of where we live and what we face.
Art can motivate; people must act.