Laura Cunningham Author Talk at Rush Ranch
Join artist-naturalist Laura Cunningham for a presentation featuring the second edition of A State of Change: California's Forgotten Landscapes (Heyday), filled with artwork taking us back into time to view California's grasslands, oak woodlands, and Central Valley marshes full of grizzlies, tule elk, condors, and salmon. What was the Bay Area like before the cities? What was Sacramento like 500 years ago? Using historical ecology and imagination, based on years of fieldwork around California, this talk will take you back in time to a land of abundance. We will also explore the processes that shaped California, such as flood and fire. The presentation (PowerPoint) will last about 45 minutes, with plenty of time afterwards for questions and answers.
Laura Cunningham grew up the the East Bay, studied paleontology at UC Berkeley, and went on to work as a wildlife biologist and conservationist. She is a self-taught artist who spent decades researching the history of the Golden State and depicting scenes of the past in oil paint and sketches. She currently lives on an old ranch in the Death Valley National Park region with her husband and a couple of horses. Website: https://www.californiaecologicalorigin.org
