Book Review: Creative Conservation

Creative Conservation: A celebration of artists who are wild about nature 

by Chrissy Wickes and Sonia Frimmel (New Holland Publishers, 2021) 

Creative Conservation showcases 35 established and aspiring artists who work with and celebrate the landscapes, flora and fauna of Aotearoa. There’s art created out in the field , art made from natural materials found out in the field, and in situ pieces that sit out in the field. All sorts of media are represented: carving, ceramics, jewellery, sketching, sculpture and weaving, as well as the odd painted water ski. 

My favourites: Sarah Matthew’s found-object art (including leaves stitched and painted into a higher level of profundity); Don Neal’s very West Coast poetry (Hate the rednecks / Log Splitters / Hate the greenies / Tree Huggers / Hate the bloody inbetweenies / Fence Sitters); and Sven Grabow’s ink renderings of the steam-punk/post-apocalyptic trampers and pest eradication officers of the future. His work is the closest I’ve come to tramping with Tank Girl, and I love it.

LAURA WILLIAMSON