Introduction

Welcome to "Palettes of Nature," a unique exhibit that comes from the collaboration between the Dyer Arts Center and Zach Ennis, co-founder of deafgreenthumbs, a Deaf-owned, Rochester-based small business that focuses on houseplant care. 

Throughout the course of this exhibit, we focus on artwork that depicts Mother Nature herself; although humans pop up here and there, they often are shown more like features of the landscape. Even in Jon Kastrup's works, which appear to be human-centric, the people shown often seem to be included in order to reflect light and color back to their surroundings, and to contribute to the texture of the whole. 

However, other pieces position humans in their environment as either contextualizers or manipulators--partners or dominators--while still more recognize that humans are not the only animals who experience and depend on landscapes and ecologies for survival, and that humans do not live in isolation. 

In a time where climate disasters are increasing--at this writing, wildfires in the American West have left an unprecedented trail of devastation while hurricane after hurricane forms in the Atlantic--it becomes increasingly important to consider more deeply our place in the natural world.

We encourage you to review the other pages in this exhibit as often as you like; if you see an artwork that tells you something, please take the time to reflect.

Thank you.