The Overstory, a seminal work by novelist Richard Powers, is the inspiration behind CATHERINE CAVALLO’s current exhibition titled The Tree is Saying Things, In Words Before Words. Joseph Agius discusses with the artist the environmental theme of her body of work.

JA: It is very interesting that the inspiration for your current exhibition, The Tree is Saying Things, in Words before Words, a quote from Richard Powers’s masterpiece The Overstory, evolved from a literary source. How did the process of your reading of the novel suggest the thematic evolution of this exhibition?

CC: As I got more and more immersed in The Overstory, the need to paint a tree grew to huge proportions. Suddenly, each tree was a unique being in a deeply connected community that encompassed the real meaning of true love; understanding that we in the universe are all one. The tree theme eventually crept into my figurative work, and I attempted to give each piece an uncomfortable feeling, a bit of turmoil, because we have never understood how to live in harmony with nature.

Almond Blossom Tree 2

JA: “You and the tree in your back yard come from a common ancestor,” claims Richard Powers in his masterpiece. To save Earth, humanity must recover from the amnesia regarding the basics of life on our planet and that we, in fact, share genes with the flora and fauna, we essentially exploit and kill our relatives; maybe this could be done through a process of intense education and political decisions which are never taken. However, do you think that ship has sailed as far as our country goes, with the uprooting of trees and destruction of old gardens? Do you think your exhibition, and art in general, can influence and alter priorities?

CC: I think that ship really has sailed for Malta. I hope I’m wrong, but there seems to be a determination to NOT be at one with nature, no matter the outcome, even if the outcome is a tragedy. Art can be very influential if one is open to it, but many aren’t, so then I suppose we must get louder and braver, but that can be a very lonely path.

Red Heads and Oranges

JA: In my opinion, your paintings of trees have an orientalist feeling, evoking to a minor extent similarly themed paintings of Vincent van Gogh and Gustav Klimt. One of your past themes, among many others in your general oeuvre, was flowers and their exultation in the beauty of pristine landscape. Those paintings celebrated the great outdoors and freedom. Are these current paintings an exercise in introspection, (maybe COVID induced), in enclosure, in the comfort of seclusion? Can we find our own earthly paradise in high-walled gardens situated in urban, claustrophobic settings?

Catherine Cavallo

CC: Your feeling is right, this body of work is the aftermath of COVID. I looked for more seclusion in my outdoor painting and found it in gardens. My life drawing sessions, though still live, were done through Zoom, perfectly isolated in my studio, and all this was certainly conducive to some introspection. In the oil paintings of almond blossom trees and orange trees, I focused on the foliage in an attempt to feel more immersed in the trees, and I gave them all shallow space rather than depth, to enhance the idea of ‘high-walled’, ‘claustrophobic settings’ of urban existence, as you put it.

Art can be very influential if one is open to it, but many aren’t, so then l suppose we must get louder and braver, but that can be a very lonely path

JA: Tackling of environmental themes, a return to a primitive state, and the sacrality of nature have been the domain of many artists, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries, such as the German expressionists, Ansel Adams, and contemporary artist Peter Doig. One also cannot fail to mention Georgia O’Keeffe, who once said: “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else”, and she did so with her large floral paintings. Do you find the works of these artists inspirational? Which artists do you consider as inspiration?

Orange Tree 2

CC: In my early years, Expressionism was the first ‘ism’ to really grab me, so it was the wild and tormented works of Goya and Munch or the dramatic tones of Rembrandt that were my frequent points of refe­rence. Today, that has spilled over to many great artists from the Renaissance to the 19th and 20th centuries, too many to name, but I find inspiration comes as much from seeing the challenge the work has offered as the execution of it. On another note, the quotation you picked by Georgia O’Keeffe is to me a perfect expression of what one feels when painting nature; you have to look deeply for lengths of time, and as you do, the beauty draws you in, and soon you are infused with its love.

Upside Down Man

JA: Another theme in this exhibition is the nude, both male and female. However, these portrayals suggest a biblical pre-fall-from-grace comfort within one’s own skin, and without the noise that body types have to fit in within man-made parameters of beauty. These nudes are Rubenesque, voluptuous like those of Matisse, and uninhibited and unselfconscious like those of the German expressionists of Die Brücke (The Bridge). Powers realistically and sadly admits: “You can’t come back to something that is gone”. Can the ‘gone’ be summoned through art; maybe one day life could imitate art in a reversal of roles?

CC: I like your question, “can the ‘gone’ be summoned through art?”, but I think what often happens when we look at beautiful art is a wistful feeling for something gone, out of reach. The ‘gone’ can be summoned only for as long as we look at the painting or draw on it in our minds.

Colourful Nude 2

Having said that, there are so many artistic depictions of tragedies which are still actually happening in real life today, which are certainly imitations of art, just not in the way we would hope for.

At the start of this body of works, I was also playing around with more abstract paintings and, as the whole oeuvre grew together, I always felt they had relevance to all the other work. One day I urgently needed a base for a life drawing session, and grabbed one of the abstracts still in progress, and the two just merged. I have found the whole approach to abstract to be very useful when executing more exact forms.

Richard and Ruth

The Tree is Saying Things, in Words before Words, hosted by Mqabba’s Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq and curated by Melanie Erixon for Art Sweven, is open till January 8. Consult the event’s Facebook page for opening hours and more information.

Abstract 2