Beacon artist Theresay Gooby's "Drawings of Trees" honor the tree as a simple inspiration for a world of art. Her mixed media drawings on wood of the trees and their birds are whimsical and delightful. Theresa's first New York winter was a harsh shock to her, a person who has spent most of her life living on the west coast. It was cold, dreary and ugly compared to San Francisco. "As I walked through the gray streets of New York in the dregs of winter every day I tried to find something visually interesting to keep me going. I noticed that the bare winter trees appeared to be like living drawings. They are simple colorless line drawings that exist in a three dimensional space. Each one followed the same system of nature but each one was uniquely different. One branch splits off into another into another. I began to study the trees like artworks. I would draw trees according to the system I observed; studying the trees as drawings became a calming exercise. I looked forward to finding new trees to examine on my daily walks."

Now she makes photographs of these living drawings, then turns them into transparencies using an artists’ material. Once a tree has been turned into a transparency, she adheres it to a wooden block that has been painted. When they are done she lets them sit together on the floor of her studio and ruminates on them until two or sometimes three will seem to belong together. Many of the choices she makes with color and size of each piece involves some random chance. Wood is either found or donated to her by a woodworker from their scrap pile. "I aim to choose colors that reflect how I feel about the seasons but sometimes I mix colors that I cannot replicate no matter how hard I try."

"I call these “Drawings of Trees” because I am honoring the tree as a simple inspiration for a world of art. One of the first things we draw with crayons is a tree. It is the beginning of art. Nature is often the entry to understanding art."

Theresa Gooby was born and raised in California and now lives in Beacon, NY. She has a BFA in Studio Art from the University of New Mexico and an MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work explores the intersection of the man made world and the natural world. Her work has been featured in shows at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walter & McBean Galleries in San Francisco, Temporary Autonomous Museum of San Francisco, the Amos Eno Gallery on Brooklyn NY, on site in Marfa TX and in Beacon NY. She has also organized the first Beacon Open Studios for the Beacon Arts Community Association (BACA) which included over 50 Beacon artists and is now a member of the BACA Board.