Healing Landscapes of Texas : A Journey from the Big Thicket to Big Bend (Joe and Betty Moore Texas Art Series, 11)

Places of special beauty, grandeur, & abundance bring us closer to nature's healing powers. Yet the healing touch of nature can also be found in our own backyards. From the minute to the grandiose, nature's beauty can lift, soothe, & strengthen everyone who is willing to take a moment to watch & listen. It was in the Big Thicket of East Texas & the Big Bend of far West Texas where artist Jeanne Norsworthy began to appreciate these special gifts. She responded by creating drawings & paintings that now transmit the power of these extraordinary sites to those who view her pictures & read her thought-provoking descriptions. In turn, as Norsworthy wrote, those experiences may encourage us to reach out to heal the nature that our civilization has scarred & endangered. In this graceful & grace-filled book, Norsworthy shares her experiences with & observations of nature & people found in the Big Thicket & the Big Bend. Whether painting the life & death of a single magnolia blossom or the clear, magnifying vistas of mountain & desert, she worked with an inner voice that gave special depth & meaning to her art. In the early 1990s, Norsworthy was diagnosed with breast cancer & began medical treatment. It was a turning point in her art as well as her life, & thereafter she tried to describe in her work the healing that a connection to nature, & an ear for nature's half-hidden messages, can give. Her painting, always dependent on what she called "the dreamlike state," became even more allegorical in interpreting the relationship of the natural & the emotional worlds, the time "just before sleep or waking, invaluable for visualizing a painting." Norsworthy's tender & evocative art offers a sustaining appreciation of the natural worlds of Texas' Big Thicket & Big Bend.Jeanne Norsworthy is the author of 'Healing Landscapes of Texas : A Journey from the Big Thicket to Big Bend (Joe and Betty Moore Texas Art Series, 11)', published 2001 under ISBN 9781585441402 and ISBN 1585441406.