Deedra Ludwig

About Deedra Ludwig

Born in Chicago, Illinois USA As an artist I remain committed to documenting observations of the natural world and recording them through the mediums of oil, resin, dry pigments, ink, soil and other non traditional materials. The use of materials such as soil and ground botanical specimens serve as a foundation in which a "sense of place" is layered into each painting. My process is a synthesis of decades of experimentation with color, mark making, and composition all linked to my reverence of the primordial world. I consider my work environmental as it serves to speak for imperiled geographic locations and fragile environments. Since the 1990's I have worked with biologists, botanists and historians on site in diverse ecosystems where our human interactions have diminished the health, vitality and well-being of land and watersheds. Disturbances such as hurricanes, fire, human introduction of non-native species, and poor stewardship have lead to an altered form of nature that we are forced to live with. Regardless, nature still holds the embodiment of profoundly sublime secrets within its fragile and subtle layers that might otherwise be overlooked or ignored; these are the secret stories of the endangered. Rather than re-creating a literal landscape on a canvas, I aim to express its essence. Obviously, no single work can hope to distill the complex spirit of a landscape, much less the infinitely sophisticated ecology that sustains it. In order to capture this richness I work on a large number of paintings concurrently. This allows me to interchange strong elements and techniques from one piece to the next. Each multi-layered rendering shares some details with other works. The overlap of elements enriches each individual expression and deepens the cohesion within each body of work which is based on imperiled geographic locations and fragile environments, such as the Florida Everglades, Gulf of Mexico coastal regions, Pacific Northwest wetlands and global rain forests.