Sustenance

**Sustenance**

Oil paintings by Susan Valentine

**Website**: https://susanvalentine.art/

In 1973's movie, *Soylent Green*, citizens were presented an option to leave the planet voluntarily (assisted suicide) to relieve a planet burgeoning with humans. Folks who relented and opted in were sent off seeing the most glorious, immersive film depicting the planet’s former natural beauties. It put them back in that time, steeped in that natural beauty. Sure, they got turned into Soylent Green (it’s probably too late to call that a spoiler) but they all died very deeply moved by the sight, the remembrance of their gorgeous blue marble of a planet.

I often wonder: If the natural wonders of this world come to an end, and I am one of the few left to help raise it from the ashes… How much of it would I be able to recall fully enough to recreate?

I’m not able to remember a single novel well enough to bring it back. I can’t build a car’s engine. I am pretty sure I don’t have what it takes to recreate any medications—no matter how life-saving—or figure out how electricity works.

BUT if I could create works to communicate the world’s visual splendors... If I could be the one person in our small troupe of survivors who would put together works to call back the beauty that once was, I would be satisfied.

I work from my home studio in Leverett. Here (as in the whole valley) I enjoy a rich community of fellow creatives.

My work represents the world around me in a pretty realistic way. Although I am currently working on human portraiture, The Sustenance Series, represented here, is one in which I enjoy portraying individual foods as the main character in the portraits. I hope you enjoy. See more at my website at susanvalentine.art. 

**Website**: https://susanvalentine.art/