Originial Collections
Homage to Paul Gauguin with Angel Wrestling with Blackberry Oil on Canvas | Framed | 23” x19”
Taken after the Fauvist painting by Gauguin, “Vision After the Sermon, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel”. Blackberry-eating crows replace Gauguin’s nuns in this painting where a wrestling match is happening, between the personal will of the “Blackberry” and the Angel whose “will” represents my sense of nature’s creation.
Loppers and Sickle Oil on Canvas | Framed | 23” x 18.5”
Blackberry plants have multiple methods for resurrecting their numbers. Shown here, a tendril from the main plant reaches out, sometimes just weeks following their being cut, to make contact with the earth, which by autumn will begin to sprout roots for a new plant. Seeds distributed through birds and animal’s defecation is another swift means of establishing new plants
The Cycle of Birds, Berries and Loppers Oil on Board | Framed | 20” x 22”
A cycle of its own—the birds eat the lush berries—with the loppers we cut the vines—but the plants are re-seeded by the birds—and so it goes. This cycling saga can make one cry, but then one must laugh.
Bird Saying Good-Bye Oil on Canvas | 24” x 20” | Framed
The bird in back of the powerful loppers witnesses the death of the blackberry vines shown in the midst of a ghostly white foreground.)
Portrait of Insanity Oil on Canvas | Framed | 21” x 17.5”
This self-portrait shows a dogged determination in face of the futility of the task at hand. The odds are against me as I cut one vine at a time. I ask myself, “Is this a sane thing to be doing?”
Slow Travel Oil on Board | 23” x 18.5” | Framed
One rarely sees a snake beneath a smothering canopy of briars. The dead canes still sport razor sharp thorns and many lie prone beside the piercing live branches.
Winter Blackberry Song Oil on Board | Framed | 22” x 19”
Here a bird sings a lament for the berries now gone from the vines. The bird has done her part and has eaten and distributed the seed, so the song is also for new plants to arise from the soil in the spring.
Beneath the Briars Acrylic on Paper | Framed | 13” x 16”
At the edge of a blackberry thicket, there is often enough light to allow the dormant trillium to sprout and flower. Deeper in the tangle, where too little light penetrates the darkness, the bulbs lay dormant through the seasons.
The Edge of Light Acrylic on Paper | Framed | 24.5” x 21”
With enough light at the edge of the thicket, the delicate wildflowers like trillium, camas, false Solomon’s seal, shooting star, fritalaria and trout lily can bloom. When enough of the blackberry vines are cleared, these native wildflowers can populate the entire meadow.
Death Mask Oil on Board | 23" x 18.5" | Framed | $350
Clearly chopping the blackberries wasn’t doing the job. Something stronger was needed. This portrait shows the chemical mask worn when spraying chemicals on blackberry vines.)
BlackBerry Deva Goes Everywhere Acrylic on Mat Board | Framed | 26.5” x 42.5”
The Deva of the Blackberry travels, making settlements in every hospitable site available. Each time the earth is disturbed she is there whether it is an abandoned building, where trees are removed, along stream banks where light can penetrate through the canopy, along roadsides, or in open meadows. She knows no bounds.
The Table is Set for Just Desserts Oil on Canvas | 21.5” x 20”| Framed | Sold
The Himalayan blackberry produces delicious purple tinted, black, robust berries that make up into a delicious and pretty pie. Here the utensils for eating the pie are the tools of its destruction.)
Laocoon, Assailed by BlackBerries; 19.5 X 20.5; acrylic/board; $250 Gouache on Matt Board | Framed | 11” x 14” | $100
Recently discovered, this ancient artwork is thought to have possibly been the inspiration for the famous Greek sculpture, Laocoon. The famous marble sculpture (circa 1st Century Greece) depicts the Trojan priest, Laocoon, being engulfed and bitten by a sea serpent. Here, instead, we see the aggressive blackberries overwhelming Laocoon, — the very same species brought to the United States in 1885 by Luther Burbank. Although Burbank named this blackberry, the Himalayan Giant, it was actually native to Armenia, within the bioregion of the Trojan empire. Like the Trojan horse, this gift of the Himalayan blackberry has released its armies onto our North American landscape. The in scripted saber, deciphered in Armenian as, “To Grow, To Blacken, To Go”— was also uncovered with this ancient artwork. Most likely it was used by Laocoon in a vain attempt to subdue the blackberry’s thorny advance.
Suzann of the Jungle Digitally drawn printed on photo paper | Framed | 11” x 24” | $100
When I was a child I would play with my sister in The Grove where this land reclamation project is taking place. I would pretend I was a female Tarzan-like superwoman. There were no blackberries there then. Now, returning like a super heroine from the comic books, I swoop in to rescue the shape of the land from the mesmerizing and shape-altering cover of the blackberry vines. With my powerful and magically potent sword, which I twirl the blackberries caught on the tip of the blade, twisting them into a tornado-stream of spiraling movement up into outer space where they are swallowed into a Black (Berry) Hole in the universe.)
Himalayan armeniacus Watercolor on Paper | 11” x 14” | $200
Himalayan blackberry is a robust perennial, sprawling, mainly evergreen, shrub of the Rose family (Rosaceae). Leaves are large, round to oblong and toothed, and typically come in sets of three (side shoots) or five (main stems). The strong stems support large, stiff thorns. Often lateral buds shoot off from the sides of the main stems.
The Outcasts Pen and Ink, Watercolor and Acrylic on Paper | Framed | 28.5” x 20.5” | Not For Sale
This artwork illustrates some of the native berry producing species commonly and routinely displaced by blackberry thickets. The thick stalks and vines of the Himalayan blackberry out compete with these less ambitious native species. The native berry species are important to wildlife because they bloom and ripen at varying times throughout the season. Their absence from the landscape spells hardship on the wildlife that depends on their produce before or after the Himalayan blackberry has produced its crop.
Goats and Weed Eater Oil on Canvas | 20” x 16” | Sold
I lay down my weed-eater and invite the Goats in for dinner. Keeping the berries down demands that the goats or me with my weed-eater make frequent forays into the blackberry patches. Unfortunately, the goats will eat everything else too, including the bark on younger trees.)
War Dance Oil on Canvas | Framed | 28” x 38”
With machete in hand, I sway as I slay the blackberry vines.
Blooms, Buds, and Berries Pen and Ink on Paper | 14” x 17”
This scientific illustration shows the stages of the blackberry production, from its bloom, to the stages of the berry’s maturity.
Luther Burbank Acrylic/Mixed | Framed | 23.5” x 20.5” | Not For Sale
In 1885, after selecting the best and most vigorous seedlings from a species of blackberry from the middle east, Luther Burbank introduced the “Himalayan Giant” blackberry onto the American continent. Its spread has contributed to the displacement of many native species. In the early 1900’s Luther Burbank became a vocal advocate of Eugenics, which espoused the sterilization of women thought to carry mental illness, mental and physical defects, as well as for men incarcerated in our prison system. This painting references Roy Lichtenstein’s famous series of paintings that began the pop art movement in the United States. Additionally, one of our culture’s popular images, especially for truckers, is the “mudflap girl” who appears in this painting as the sexually centered, Blackberry Goddess. Both make comments about Luther’s concerns about their reproductive abilities.
Acceptance Gouache on Matt Board | 16” x 20”
After clearing the area from blackberries, I plant a tree, and beside me, the Blackberry Deva, although weakened by my repeated attacks on her, plants a blackberry vine. Without wrath or resignation, I accept her resilience and determination.
Susan Applegate
The Blackberry Series grew out of the process of clearing blackberry vines from a grove of hardwood trees. These paintings playfully capture and reinterpret that experience. The series was first exhibited at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Eugene, Oregon
Blackberry Series