What is nature? According to Edward Munch “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye… it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” This quote chosen by curator, Jamaal Eversley, defines the exhibit as an expression of nature, the spiritual, and “the human tendency to reach for the light in the darkest of times.” This gallery brought together two artist, M.C. Mendez and Fritz Ducheine, a pair that could not be more fundamentally different, but both with bodies of work defined by the comfort of looking to nature to understand ourselves and an overarching message of empathy and hope.

Fritz’s Ducheine’s work shows the connection he draws between men’s connection to nature and a peaceful world. In “Reincarnation of Queen Anakaona”, Ducheine had a vision of a haitian chieftess and poet Anakaona. In the land that pre-dates modern Haiti, men had an agricultural tribal lifestyle and according to Ducheine lived peacefully because “nature gave them everything they needed to be free. When we learn to live with nature, it will gently embrace us.” Like Ducheine, sometimes all we have is a vision, that the peace is in our minds but the pain around us keeps us from realizing it. The power is knowing within us, we hold the ability to be free. The artist says to reckon with our spirituality, we have to see the significance of the ant, to see how we are part of nature’s peaceful fullness. Ducheine’s uses these convictions to open his mind and when he closes his eyes he has visions. He sees great figures in history and passes down their message of peace. He sees the world inside of a tree, and the freedom of birds, and transmutes it onto canvas. 

Mendez too looks to nature for solace. In her work “Ladder Collage,” a figure is seen gazing through a window at the moon. Behind her is another curled in pain, writhing in confusion wrapped in a net. This piece is about the artist’s grappling with the pain and confusion throughout the healing of a head injury in a landscape of spiritual interim. She is compassionately viewing the process of going on and surviving by simply understanding the phases of growth by gazing at a full moon. The moon that guides all of nature and is a symbol to humanity of continuity and persistence. Mendez offers her figures a ladder, a symbolic gesture of climbing out. She inspires empathy by allowing her figures honest repose depicting the model’s natural expression of their naked back vulnerable facing the viewer. In inspiring empathy for her figures, she extends compassion for herself through processing her powerlessness and by extension, all the pain realized in others. 

Simple with her words, Mendez encapsulated the meaning with a short reading of ‘Lessons’ by Rosemerry Wahtola Trummer: “How could we ever forget?

As if soil could forget

it is here to feed the trees.

As if trees could forget

they are here to feed the soil.

How could anything

ever get in the way of generosity?

Sometimes, we can only guide people out of the darkness by pointing them to the light. 

Looking at both the artists’ work featured in this exhibit, you can see one similarity in composition, vivid color on a dark background. It almost gives their visions an ominous tone, but this stylistic choice is the actuality that color stands brighter against darkness. To hope in the darkest of times and reach for the light is the realization of our spirituality.