http://www.maryciani.com/digital-painting-ladders-boxes daily 0.75 2024-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717024589-A75VAZ7RR2H8BE3E436O/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Rope Ladder Since ladders are simple in form but complex in meaning, I chose them as the subject for my first digital painting series. They were an excuse to explore the possibilities of a medium then new to me, digital painting in Photoshop, in all its infinite permutations. I was painting ladders in oils at one end of my studio, and at the other end making covers and booklets in Photoshop for my sister Suzanne Ciani’s music albums, when it occurred to me to also paint my own creative work in Photoshop! Following is a selection of more than a dozen digital variations of ladders. Later I pursued other series in this new medium. This image received an award at a national exhibition. Painted in Photoshop with no source image - nothing scanned, printed 30” x 30” or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717024589-A75VAZ7RR2H8BE3E436O/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Rope Ladder Since ladders are simple in form but complex in meaning, I chose them as the subject for my first digital painting series. They were an excuse to explore the possibilities of a medium then new to me, digital painting in Photoshop, in all its infinite permutations. I was painting ladders in oils at one end of my studio, and at the other end making covers and booklets in Photoshop for my sister Suzanne Ciani’s music albums, when it occurred to me to also paint my own creative work in Photoshop! Following is a selection of more than a dozen digital variations of ladders. Later I pursued other series in this new medium. This image received an award at a national exhibition. Painted in Photoshop with no source image - nothing scanned, printed 30” x 30” or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717053092-CHEX1F17O3LNR6PLAIQ4/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Silk Ladders An early game in Photoshop. Painted in Photoshop with no source image. This was printed 10” x 10” at the time, in the early 90’s. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426611390964-W7ZCYF5PI9ZFCPWAW8P4/image-asset.png Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - pretty pic writing about the photo here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717345708-LQ6GOF7OZVDRB2WHO5SF/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Two Bejeweled Ladders I gave a demonstration at an ACM SIGGRAPH conference workshop on how to use Photoshop tools to make these complex radiating circular patterns that touched each other like bubbles. Created wholly in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429649127768-YEV8RE2KBP397AN7SBEJ/Saslow-Beaded-Ladders-and-Pull.jpg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Beaded Ladders and Pull A mysterious image created using a technique native to Photoshop. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717098776-5VM7VWYBWMIMYY3AURCD/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Tall Ladders Some paths are more difficult than others. I imagine trying to climb these difficult ladders so different from each other. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431030095305-OIG1SDQFUTLD8ZAG80VF/Laced+Black+Branches+2.jpg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Laced Black Branches Staccato rhythms across a flat surface. Awkward, handmade ladders taped together. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431030841414-IW8J8HEQV0JZKDNT6CPS/Wonderful+Ladders.jpg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Wonderful Ladders Barely viable yarn ladders. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square, and variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431011572757-ZJT0YP7RQDMWET6DT0BW/Three-Red-Ladders-1500.jpg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Three Red Ladders Another variation of Three Ladders design. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” x 30" square. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717306025-1WAPVL53LUHY0O2LUFVD/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Three Ladders - Shamen Collages of translucent colors in infinite variation. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431012380026-HYSM8MJOREJWB9R7QEHH/Three-Gold-Ladders.jpg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Three Gold Ladders From a very long series that was fun to do. This played with interaction of gradients. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square, or variation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426716771145-XA7RJNY97L1EHL6Y84JM/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Carpets and Red Shoe Ladder I took inordinate pleasure staying up late into the night creating complex repeating patterns that I then layered using transparency and layering effects to create further designs. I would love to have all these carpets in my house, and walk between them in my red high healed shoes. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426716735601-LIT58R3BRMGSLEXKRKLH/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Carpets and Red Shoe Ladder - Detail 1 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426716700936-KJ4287N68DM0AVRMU6PF/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Carpets and Red Shoe Ladder - Detail with Shoes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426716011665-2QZOZXV75ITBN02FWUFD/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Cardboard Box Boxes were the subject of the second series I painted in Photoshop. Once again, they were open to almost infinite variations of creative manipulation and symbolic meaning. Cardboard Box was based on a drawing I made while I was teaching perspective construction and light. Created entirely in Photoshop and printed 10” x 10” at that time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431033415918-AO1DZDFT652T4OD0HO21/Cardboard+Box+Between+Mouse+and+Brush+FLAT.jpg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Between Mouse and Brush I was a greedy, empty seeker caught between a mouse (or Wacom stylus) and a brush, between a new form of art, digital painting, and all my years of painting in oils. Created entirely in Photoshop and printed 10” x 10” at that time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431030842366-CG6DLW3BVIVODSJ2N2LM/Box+14.jpg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Box, Stamps, Rain https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426715043328-L4S1T26ZIUERE3QX7KJU/image-asset.jpeg Ladders, Boxes: Digital Paintings - Map Mountain Moon http://www.maryciani.com/new-gallery daily 0.75 2025-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426715622704-QYHWMSQX1RMI8RZHRAFM/image-asset.jpeg Paintings and Oil Pastels - Vines and Maps 2 One of several 4' x 5' and 4' x 6' oil paintings created in the 80s in Bryan, Texas, Studio, and Summer-White Studios, Houston. Theme and variation echo across the canvas. Vines have moved from drawing to oil painting, and maps are first introduced. Oil on Canvas, 46” x 60” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426715622704-QYHWMSQX1RMI8RZHRAFM/image-asset.jpeg Paintings and Oil Pastels - Vines and Maps 2 One of several 4' x 5' and 4' x 6' oil paintings created in the 80s in Bryan, Texas, Studio, and Summer-White Studios, Houston. Theme and variation echo across the canvas. Vines have moved from drawing to oil painting, and maps are first introduced. Oil on Canvas, 46” x 60” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431038383758-3BS1CFAP7P5ZD8K8T2BH/Fish-Tailed+Flowers.jpg Paintings and Oil Pastels - Fish Tailed Flower A very early painting of warning. As I held my hand up in the middle of the 3,000 square foot group studio, I saw fingers as blue as the sea grow fishtails, and bloom flowers – a warning of the hard, hot, mineral future. Painted in the '80s in downtown Bryan TX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426715607023-XPCPLVMBFYTH48P2PVGW/image-asset.jpeg Paintings and Oil Pastels - Moon Flower Sun Flower Two spiritual poles: the light of the day, and the dark of the night. In the collection of the Psychology Department, Texas A&M University, College Station TX. 46” x 60, oil on canvas, 1980s https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426715580938-VEWW9DOX9ZXCZO0N1WU9/image-asset.jpeg Paintings and Oil Pastels - For Cynthia This is one of a triptych of three vertical canvases exhibited together at the J. Wayne Stark Galleries at Texas A&M University. They were painted when my sister Cynthia was being treated for cancer, which she survived then. She is blooming in fire. 60” x 46”, oil on canvas, 1980s. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431038383648-BSK34EJEYGG0EF4C8D3E/Fish-Tailed+Flower+2+edited.jpg Paintings and Oil Pastels - Fish Tailed Flower 2 From the I Thou series of paintings. Two people navigate marriage. This was exhibited at a one-person show in a Houston gallery. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426715732276-3HZYNVPOIKANR8XK0DFL/image-asset.jpeg Paintings and Oil Pastels - I Thou Red Cross A difficult relationship between two people. oil pastel https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426715749632-V4LOQ6YJSC6M4PO24JU2/I+Thou+Yellow+Vines++%230003.jpg Paintings and Oil Pastels - I Thou Yellow Vine The yellow is scratched in with a knife through layers of oil pastel to reveal a ground of yellow oil pastel. Knives are very useful in this kind of art. Almost all my kitchen knives ended up five miles away in a studio in downtown Bryan, Texas. http://www.maryciani.com/drawings daily 0.75 2024-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717592241-D66DRZ05NTSW6NDSMF9M/image-asset.jpeg Vine Drawings, Laundry, Sketches - Vines 18 I drew 91 drawings of vines after my mother died in August and my father died in October of the same year. It was my way of mourning. These were intuitive drawings, and only later did I fathom their meaning. They are lives lived – vines intertwined winding through time, trumpet and briar blooming in fire. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717592241-D66DRZ05NTSW6NDSMF9M/image-asset.jpeg Vine Drawings, Laundry, Sketches - Vines 18 I drew 91 drawings of vines after my mother died in August and my father died in October of the same year. It was my way of mourning. These were intuitive drawings, and only later did I fathom their meaning. They are lives lived – vines intertwined winding through time, trumpet and briar blooming in fire. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1426717552798-GPY2NNKNA2CUATAPD341/image-asset.jpeg Vine Drawings, Laundry, Sketches - Vines 32 If we were vines we could look back and see all who we had touched. Always they sought to flower. Maybe I drew vines because when I first moved to Texas I pulled down vines for days that were encircling and killing my bushes. I left red trumpet vines to climb high in one tree. http://www.maryciani.com/new-gallery-1 daily 0.75 2024-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429565427258-6PST57C59HKMK056ZPPK/Waving+across+the+River%2C+4.14FINALdarker+copy.png Flood Drawings - Waving across the River FLOOD: River Responding to drought in Texas, I chose to draw abundant water. Spread out later like a storyboard, the drawings became a narrative in five chapters: from first Rivers, to Villages in harmony with the river, to Cities, and then Storm - the age we live in now - and finally Deluge, our future disinheritance. A selection of the drawings became a book and an art exhibition, both titled FLOOD River Village City Storm Deluge. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429565427258-6PST57C59HKMK056ZPPK/Waving+across+the+River%2C+4.14FINALdarker+copy.png Flood Drawings - Waving across the River FLOOD: River Responding to drought in Texas, I chose to draw abundant water. Spread out later like a storyboard, the drawings became a narrative in five chapters: from first Rivers, to Villages in harmony with the river, to Cities, and then Storm - the age we live in now - and finally Deluge, our future disinheritance. A selection of the drawings became a book and an art exhibition, both titled FLOOD River Village City Storm Deluge. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1441474825970-QSEH1TNCG5D4XJUX5KCB/Tributaries+corrected+FINAL.png Flood Drawings - Tributaries FLOOD: River I had a rowboat as a child I rowed on a lake all summer. Out alone on the water I found a place of freedom and tranquility. Rowboats started to appear in the Flood drawings, and only later did I figure out what they might symbolize. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2013. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1441475440391-69MGT1Y6ABX68YAR3QW0/Village%2C+5.13+FINAL+for+book+copy.png Flood Drawings - Village FLOOD: Village Drawn in a sister's home in an ecovillage in Belfast, Maine. The quiet, centered pattern of the houses is based on the communal spirit of that village, and on a pattern of barnacles on rocks. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2013. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429567982825-HPLM3O3LZAHG7XSFL8UR/Observer+on+the+Beach%2C+6.14+copy+corrected.png Flood Drawings - Observer on the Beach FLOOD: Village Reminiscent of Suzanne's cliff on the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco. After I finished the drawing, I realized that it includes a symbol of the artist/observer on the beach. She is also in the rowboats, the houses, and walking on the trails between the trees. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1441476022111-276D38HB9I5CWOH7Y7VM/Summer+on+the+River+corrected+FINAL+LIGHTER.png Flood Drawings - Summer on the River Flood: Village W M J and L are the initials of my husband, myself, and our daughters. Here, we each have our own attached house. This drawing is a memory/dream of summer days near lakes and oceans. We visit in boats, and in chairs we sun, read, watch, draw, and party. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1430940943430-B3X1C3X1O8AFZXVHQHMG/Four+Tree+Apartment+Houses+copy+corrected+RESCAN.png Flood Drawings - Four Tree Apartment Houses FLOOD: Village I just made this up. It includes three symbols new for me in the Flood drawings: house = family; chair = artist/observer of the seen and unseen; and rowboat – like the one I had as a child = freedom, action, autonomy. In these drawings, house, chair, and boat appear unbidden, recurring symbols of my life. (Their meaning was evident only later when I looked back to analyze my intuitive work.) I like the windows in the trees, and Cynthia's house on Flea Island in the distance. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429818429138-DVHXCYA7KFHLAJU57Z7G/Pool%2C+Towers+10-24-13+copy+copy.jpg Flood Drawings - Pool - Towers FLOOD: City The white towers of San Francisco rising above the fog first inspired the Flood series of drawings. This is an exuberant play on that idea! This unusual vantage point came easily to me since I taught perspective drawing for years. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2013. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1441476797983-TEPZ8S1YL7SYWTQ090S2/Cliff+Dwellers+corrected+DARKEST+copy.png Flood Drawings - Cliff Dwellers FLOOD: City Inspired by the islands of Boston Harbor I saw in the distance as a child – greatly modified into a fantasy! Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1430941087822-WFK5WLGW6M5RME14Y19X/Market+Day+on+the+River%2C+4.14FINALdarker+copy+2.png Flood Drawings - Market Day on the River FLOOD: City Inspired by the floating markets of Southeast Asia, and by San Antonio's River Walk which we had just visited. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1430941559195-0016IDD28R8KYPGVKCE7/Storm+from+the+Sea+10-15+copy+correctedfinal.png Flood Drawings - Storm from the Sea FLOOD: Storm This is how we live now in the Age of Storm. An Italian coastal village. An innocent bicyclist. The lines of rain drops are inspired by the wallpaper in a Van Gogh portrait. Look carefully: waves are starting to lap at the bottom of the main street as the storm first arrives. The decorative drawing of houses and clouds belie the violent nature of the coming storm. Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2013. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429568915958-JSSUP85Z2O25WPJGSK7K/Lunch+on+the+Terrace+Interrupted%2C+corrected+copy.png Flood Drawings - Lunch on the Terrace Interrupted FLOOD: Storm With thanks to works by Bonnard and O'Keefe in the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.: a leaf from O’Keefe, a terrace from Bonnard, now inundated! Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1439618567660-GR7XBYGI1J1MLJMF303H/image-asset.jpeg Flood Drawings - Progress FLOOD: Storm We live in a runaway world of rising real estate prices and taxes, a world of teardowns, gigantism, and "creative destruction." Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429562409054-CHUW0MGJ24GLBIOCAIC9/Swept+Away+FINAL+copy.png Flood Drawings - Swept Away FLOOD: Deluge No preliminary drawing. (None of the Flood drawings have preliminary drawing.) Deluge is a possible future for us and our warming world. We see it approaching swiftly every day in the news. (Now as I rewrite this in 2018, Deluge has arrived.) Professional markers, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1438287934751-9ASTMG9GKEJ3DEE1AIHA/Cold+Water+Rising%2CINVERSE8x10+300+ppi+FINAL+DARKER+copy.png Flood Drawings - Cold Water Rising FLOOD: Deluge Inspired by Yellow Mountain in southern China. I turned mist and cloud into terrifying deluge. Professional markers, image inverted and altered in Photoshop, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1438288077276-Y5K1L1CZ0D9WYBH6MRDG/Dead+Trees%2C+Fires+Flowering%2C+inverted+flat+8x10+300PPI.png Flood Drawings - Dead Trees Fires Flowering FLOOD: Deluge I think these strange images are subliminal memories of drought, fire, and dead trees of the great Texas drought of 2011 when nearby Bastrop burned. Professional markers, image inverted and altered in Photoshop, 14” x 11”, 2013. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1438288088673-9Z4QKBECQ5VU21H8JS8T/Deluge+Destroying+the+Mountain+City%2C+INVERSE2+8x10+300ppi.png Flood Drawings - Deluge Destroying the Mountain City FLOOD: Deluge I drew this violent, prophetic image after hearing of destructive mudslides in California. Drought, forest fires, and deluge lead to this. Professional markers, image inverted and altered in Photoshop, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1439614705976-GM4R515ZUK3PDYCS226M/image-asset.jpeg Flood Drawings - Safe Harbor FLOOD: Deluge I grew up south of Boston on Quincy Bay, and visited the safe harbors of Gray Gables and Barlow's Landing on Cape Cod, and the refuge for lobster boats of Pleasant Point Gut in Maine. In this foreboding drawing of deluge and tsunami, a safe harbor is hard to find. Professional markers, image inverted and altered in Photoshop, 14” x 11”, 2014. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429564445218-SEMFORUCC4OGXX24VJ6P/Five+Falls%2C+8.14+FINAL+copy.png Flood Drawings - Five Falls FLOOD: River http://www.maryciani.com/map-mountain-moon-digital-painting daily 0.75 2025-01-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431034117018-IG0F79QG1N9IBK8J3HEZ/MMM-Ribbons-small-2009.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Map Mountain Moon: Ribbons A square map hardly exists. Mountains block us. The moon is a scattering swirl of ribbons and more ribbons unfurl in the wind. Entirely digitally created, printed with archival inks on archival paper, 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429654184301-HA90S14JQQP5GEZV0V66/MMM%2BFlying%2BGold%2BMaps%2B1080x810.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Black Suns, Flying Gold Maps The Map Mountain Moon series started as oil paintings that played on the picture plane with two-dimensional shapes: a square map that tells us nothing, a triangle that challenges us, and the round circle of the ineffable moon, our final goal. In this later digital MMM, created in a time of drought and severe heat, everything is now in motion in a three-dimensional space: useless maps blow in the wind, mountains become 3D Christmas tree cones, and the moon expands, multiplies, and spins into aggressive burning black suns. I invented new brushes to make the maps. This is a digital painting painted entirely in Photoshop, printed 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431034117018-IG0F79QG1N9IBK8J3HEZ/MMM-Ribbons-small-2009.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Map Mountain Moon: Ribbons A square map hardly exists. Mountains block us. The moon is a scattering swirl of ribbons and more ribbons unfurl in the wind. Entirely digitally created, printed with archival inks on archival paper, 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429809920353-RDXVIGSFQORXOECC3NYU/MMM-3-Black-Map-Red-Mountain-Gold-Moons-30x40-1920x1920.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Black Map, Red Mountain, Gold Moons One of the Map Mountain Moon series. In all of these the square map that is supposed to guide us tells us nothing, the mountain that challenges us is too difficult, and the spiritual goal of the moon is unreachable. Here all is in motion, textured with gesture – black, red, and gold against a gold background like a medieval alterpiece. Digital painting printed 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429810303857-FPRBEQ6P6GH1YLF3CNZ4/M+C+Saslow+MMM+20x40+08+3.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Black Map, Gold Mountains, Many Moons Frozen gestures and layers. Digital painting printed 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429651543663-RXM4F5V86PAQU0YJHN7D/Sun+and+Spreading+HillsSaslow22x..+on+24x..paper+copy.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Sun and Spreading Hills Another response to drought and intense heat. Sun sabers writhe. Trees burn. I played with translucent patterns of scorched earth repeating across receding hills. Digital painting printed 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429767001678-9OL0BEMBF05DE62S53LY/MMM-30X40-06-09-ta-10-2-09-redmt-blackmts-greensky.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Black Mountains Red Mountain Green Sky A darkening place. Falling rivers are intimations of the Flood and Deluge Series to come. Digital painting printed 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431034153315-312RRDUZQTGOOWKMOICW/Tears-of-God%2C-Scattered-Ribbons.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Tears of God, Scattered Ribbons Are these tears of Mother Earth or of God the Father in Heaven? The map is missing, the mountains ignore us, and the moon is now falling tears. Broken ribbons in the wind imply chaos. As is usual in my work, interpretation evolved intuitively as I worked, and became visible to me slowly. Digital painting printed 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1431034206570-DD15753YDY703WRPDQRF/MMM-3-Green-Mountains%2C-Orange-Ribbons-2000.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Map Mountain Moon: Red Ribbons It was a delight to make this elating image in a new palette! Digital painting printed 30” x 40” or varied. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429761563458-XRJI8QDHKBYMXXHLHBOW/MMM-Pilgrims+2.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Black Map Mountain Moon Pilgrims I Two pen and ink drawings inverted and layered in Photoshop. Pilgrims are at lower right. This was not painted in Photoshop as were other in this series, but manipulated in the program to create this digital version – almost impossible to make any other way. This is the first of two images created this way. Printed 30” x 30” or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429761422463-Z99JKCDVWL3N5TPESZK0/MMM++Pilgrims.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Black Mountains, Moon, Pilgrims II Two pen and ink drawings inverted and layered in Photoshop. Pilgrims are at lower right. This was not painted in Photoshop, as were other in this series, but manipulated in the program to create this digital version – impossible to make any other way. This is the second of two images created this way. Printed 30” x 30” or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429809713958-HGREDEL5HRJW37V0M3B3/static1.squarespace-2.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Map, Mountain, Three Moons, Black and Cerise One of a series of Map Mountain Moon images based on the same gestural attack and scattered components: a tipped almost hidden map, a mountain obscured by entanglements, and an almost hidden moon. This version emphasizes linear elements on a black background. Printed 30” x 30” or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429809691241-ZU8KXN6JWVPRCGEBYO8S/static1.squarespace.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Map Mountain Moon: Hot Red A square game of geometry and transparency, in an early red version. Digital painting printed 30” x 30” or variable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1429811246801-3XYP6A7WO0UN7IE9Q8YH/MMM+Time+1+2003.jpg Map Mountain Moon - Map Mountain Moon: Silver Green A square game of geometry and transparency, in an early green version. Digital painting printed 30” x 30” or variable. http://www.maryciani.com/earth-prayer daily 0.75 2025-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1518046426054-UX2J1DV82XUYRK7QJ6EK/Earth+Prayer+by+Mary+Ciani.jpg Earth Prayer - Earth Prayer A prayer I wrote thirty years ago is the foundation of my art for the last decade. Long before the Flood Drawings or the Deluge Paintings came Earth Prayer, written in an innocent time when we still thought the Earth was forever, unchanging. In this time of climate crisis this prayer honors our covenant with the Earth as we try to save it. I wrote this prayer in the middle of the night in Houston after attending a talk by art critic Lucy Lippard. I illustrated it later with pen and ink drawings, and invented my own lettering: the "Y"s, for example, are figures with arms raised in prayer. It was printed black on white paper, and white on black tee-shirts – the college student's choice in art. Many religious and non-religious people have loved this prayer. It sounds wonderful in French. I wish everyone knew it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1518046426054-UX2J1DV82XUYRK7QJ6EK/Earth+Prayer+by+Mary+Ciani.jpg Earth Prayer - Earth Prayer A prayer I wrote thirty years ago is the foundation of my art for the last decade. Long before the Flood Drawings or the Deluge Paintings came Earth Prayer, written in an innocent time when we still thought the Earth was forever, unchanging. In this time of climate crisis this prayer honors our covenant with the Earth as we try to save it. I wrote this prayer in the middle of the night in Houston after attending a talk by art critic Lucy Lippard. I illustrated it later with pen and ink drawings, and invented my own lettering: the "Y"s, for example, are figures with arms raised in prayer. It was printed black on white paper, and white on black tee-shirts – the college student's choice in art. Many religious and non-religious people have loved this prayer. It sounds wonderful in French. I wish everyone knew it. http://www.maryciani.com/deluge-paintings daily 0.75 2026-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1756426447564-9Y5L9LTAFUHMWO4M4RHU/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Burning Tree, White Water, Polluted Sky Deluge Series. This is symbolic of events endured recently because of global warming. One burning tree represents staggering tree loss from fires that start earlier each year, and burn hotter, wider, and longer. The color of one part of the trunk is almost flesh: we die too when our trees die. The white water is an out-of-control flooding stream, like the one in the Hill Country recently, or water flowing from melting glaciers. The sky is orange, polluted with the particulate matter, smoke, and pollution of forest fires. 48” x 36”, Golden paints, 7.3.25. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1756426447564-9Y5L9LTAFUHMWO4M4RHU/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Burning Tree, White Water, Polluted Sky Deluge Series. This is symbolic of events endured recently because of global warming. One burning tree represents staggering tree loss from fires that start earlier each year, and burn hotter, wider, and longer. The color of one part of the trunk is almost flesh: we die too when our trees die. The white water is an out-of-control flooding stream, like the one in the Hill Country recently, or water flowing from melting glaciers. The sky is orange, polluted with the particulate matter, smoke, and pollution of forest fires. 48” x 36”, Golden paints, 7.3.25. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1747331085015-PEWPNQP9NOO4TD23FPO1/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Black Oil Coils through Fjords of Blue Ice I imagine a powerful spill of black crude originating in the sea in the upper right corner, moving turgidly through all the tributaries of the fjords between cliffs of blue ice. I'm reading Thorolf A Viking Tale by Sue Murrphy Mote, so the beautiful fjords of Norway are on my mind. Of course in Viking times there was no fear of oil spills, but now they pose threats to fjords and sensitive marine ecosystems. btw Norway has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world: $1.747 trillion dollars from its offshore oil industry. (The US does not have a sovereign wealth fund.) Interesting: Norway sells its oil, mostly to England, and uses hydropower for its own energy. A conundrum: Norway wants to be a leader in a green economy, even while it is a leader in the petroleum industry! Sounds like the US and Texas could be…. 48" x 36", Golden paint on canvas, finished April 14, 2025. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1742416272423-D30DEV5PBJDOYSS32E1V/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Oil Spill Climate crises include many kinds of deluge. This is one: a traditional view of ocean and coast – but now invaded by the spreading black lines of heavy crude oil, another tanker disaster. For this painting I envisioned icy blues and greens but I couldn’t mix these with my limited palette. So I bought Thalo Blue and Thalo Green, colors I had not used in years. My friend Star likes the liminal moonlight. Maureen says it reminds her of when Arthur would take her out on the boat at night off the shore of Cape Cod. 48” x 36”, Golden paints on canvas, Finished 3.19.25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1727137055920-CX52A53QH5HWJJSF833E/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Blood Cut Cliffs, Rivers of Burning Blood Thank you to Bill for telling me that this was not simply blood, but burning blood. 48" x 36", Golden paints on canvas, finished Friday the Thirteenth, 9.13.24. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/5a7b71660d9297d743cbbf15/6201c73f5f83341b16612e9b/1747332295409/Deluge%2C+Bridge+to+the+Waterfalls%2C+Oil+and+Blood+Streaming%2C+Sun+Setting%2C+Storm+Rising.jpg Deluge Paintings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1724375826494-ZSQVXS8DY61CEBE4GD1Y/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Flayed Cliffs, Scars, Oil, Blood An image of our Earth, flayed and scarred with streams of oil and blood, like earlier martyrs: St. Bartholomew holding his removed skin was painted as a self portrait by Michelangelo; and the flayed satyr Marsyas, who dared challenge Apollo, was painted by Titian. 40" x 30", Golden paints on canvas, finished 3.11.2024 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1705968415592-9F45NMYELUB8YGKNO7BY/Blood+from+the+Sky%2C+Black+Rocks%2C+Black+Oil%2C+Cold+Sea.jpg Deluge Paintings - Blood from the Sky, Black Rocks, Black Oil, Cold Sea Another in the Deluge Series, a dark vision of the future. Black oil invades. Blood is a symbol of the effects of this burning oil – extreme weather and the death of our environment. Here blood falls like a river from a polluted sky when vast fires burn. Golden paint on canvas, 40” x 30”, finished 1.19.2024 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1704507148520-QR6ZN8VG9AZO6FM00EZ5/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Blood Falls, Black Oil Divides Oil and blood, cause and effect, pollution and death. A vision of the future. 20” x 16” Golden paints on canvas, Finished 12.12.2023 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1692931181110-MY0O2ZLGRE0VEMJM4LYH/E439FF78-4C6B-49ED-BFCE-29877AB77A15.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Ocean View, Torn Sky Our oceanfront view will be disturbed. As we watch, the fragile sky will tear, and the terror of infinite space will appear. 20” x 16”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 8.18.2023 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1692916415652-56BFUOIRUWLTQTIQEWB6/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Black Oil on Round Hills Another vision of a future, inspired by the fog and round hills of Marin. 20” x 16”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 8.3.2023. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1692916121486-11O2IQURKQINPG00E9P2/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Black Oil, Remaining Snow, Fog A dark vision inspired by mountains near Salt Lake City, and by the fog of Marin. 20” x 16”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 8.1.2023 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1688066299193-WC2FYB40YT2RJS4SU1X9/image-asset.png Deluge Paintings - Waters Falling on the Lavender Hills Unlike most recent Deluge Paintings, this has abundant water – not invading oil. Painted at the same time as Black Oil, Blood Cliffs, Polluted Sky: one warns of a bleak future, while the other celebrates what we will lose. 20” x 16” Golden paints on canvas, finished 6.21.2023 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1688066072891-TUV0OX9ONRDNN7LZOZPV/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Black Oil, Blood Cliffs, Polluted Sky An Art of Warning: Black oil flows down blood cliffs under a sky turned orange by the pollution of burning trees. 20” x 16”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 6.20.23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1674950605813-E8ZQCTU3JHO0WL4S3DI6/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Rising Sea, Dark Hills Fear of violent seas. Golden paint on canvas, 20” x 16”, finished 1.17.2023 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1674951755548-F9N2P1GUFTEQP2L9D1PZ/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Storm Clouds and Atmospheric Rivers Coming from the Sea Now atmospheric rivers – a terrifying development – inundate Northern California. Golden paint on canvas, 20” x 16”, finished 1.17.2023 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1692916801532-41F5G59N1JPLUIWRZWTP/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Blood Rivers, Torn Sky Another apocalyptic vision of the future. Tears in a fragile sky reveal infinite space. 20” x 16”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 8.21.2023 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1675727218319-QBLMDW0DQVGNN02Y3J1C/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Our Cruise Ship Enters a Passage to the Black Sea A Postcard from the Future. This one imagines a future when cruise ships filled with wealthy survivors sail on seas of oil. Golden paint on canvas, 20” x 16”, finished 11.22.22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646079392408-HDCWT604TBV3HHL5L31T/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Pure Water, Three Peaks, After the Oil is Gone Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 1.29.2022 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646080107833-Y3G8RBL3T1RTU5A7I7BT/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Sharp Red Cliffs, Black Oil Flowing Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 10.22.2021. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646086337830-XJIISES0Q1N1MAORNMGR/BothDeluge%2C-Rivers-of-Oil%2C-Blood%2C-and-Snowmelt%2C-Orange-Sky%2C-Dyptych.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Rivers of Oil, Blood, and Snowmelt, Orange Sky Diptych of two canvases together, each canvas is 48” x 36”. Golden paint on canvas, 48”x72”, Finished 1.1.2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1724876521128-CL3ZO48SAW4WY97FI002/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Place of Peace, Oil Begins Our past world, a place of peace. Invasion of black oil begins. 48" x 48", Golden paaints on canvas, finished 10.12.21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1630453242619-ARCW43NVCDZQKKMIBXY9/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Blood Sky, Black Oil, Blood Five centuries ago, Europeans feared the end of the world as prophesied, they thought, in the Biblical Book of Revelations. In 1498 Albrecht Durer illustrated that book with 15 woodcuts including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This painting is loosely based on that work as we now fulfill the prophecy of the Four Horsemen: Conquest, War, Pestilence, and Death. We conquered the planet and now live in the Anthropocene. We made war with the Earth with radiation, chemicals - lead in gasoline, CFCs in Freon, and methane, VOCs, and CO2 from oil and gas, and war with each other. We suffer the pestilence of Covid. Now we enter a sixth mass extinction. Five centuries after Durer, we too fear the future. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas. 48” x 36”, finished 9.27.2021. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1645653793557-WNG1XBZ34RC9NLY2F73U/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Ice Cliffs Melting, Black Oil Surging A symbol of the cause and effect of burning black oil to run our current civilization, which at the same time, destroys our host planet, particularly by melting polar and mountain ice with global warming and erratic weather. Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 8.15.2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1628022956652-41M3QWSPZXI3ZQWXE1CW/Deluge%2C+Red+Moon+8.28.21.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Red Sun Looking from a cliff, I drew the sea with a red moon above it, and then twenty-five more similar drawings, with red moons or red suns in eclipse. This painting is based on one of those drawings and on Degas. Here, beneath the dark sky of eclipse, are shadowed, surging black oil and snowmelt. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas. 48” x 36”, finished 7.28.2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1628633835857-PJ697XIHB29INR5MVZ7C/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Oil, Blood, Sediment, Under a Cement Sky Only a slight promise of white clouds appears above dark torrents of mixed blood and oil, and churning sediment. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 7.12.2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1617655915891-ZV9GKTZBAUTG7PTLIUIT/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Two Black Oil Falls, Broken Bleeding Cliffs From tall cliffs thick oil falls without flowing highlights – arrogant, violent, unending. A perfect sky disdains us. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 4.2.2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1617912201121-APIFASY4UEFA8F23CPZJ/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Black Oil and Blood on Yellow Cliffs, Ladders, Steps, Shards Golden Translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 3.23.2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646085682992-9GEOFZQWXZZGKB26KJD2/Deluge%2C-SnowMelt-on-the-Reseda-Hills.jpg Deluge Paintings - Streams of Snowmelt on Reseda Hills Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, Finished 2.15.2021 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1624075275615-2H9BTYV0B32MCEWXQWDZ/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Shattering Ice, Black Oil and Blood Invade Our Blue World Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 7.18.2020 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1645757673030-WQC5H06H4YZTSOO0BEXZ/image-asset.png Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Three Glaciers in a Red Tide A tsunami of blood and oil rushes between melting glaciers. Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 1.21.2022 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646082781662-A2SC7QCPCPUEJQNZ4YKO/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Blood Fall, Waterfall, Black Oil Pooling I looked at this upside-down and decided I liked it better that way. It still took time to finish it. Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 3.21.2020 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1583535827416-3XUYZUKYQOSDITD4KC49/Ciani_Blood-Hills%2C-Rivers-of-Oil_7.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Blood Hills, Oil Rivers, Icemelt A Warning of Deluge. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 2.12.2020 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1583535196149-J55SLH24XRZ2SWF4L3XJ/Ciani_-Deluge%2C-Black-Oil-Spilling-on-Green-Hills_6.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Black Oil Spilling on Green Hills Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 1.8.2020 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1583535624828-VVS0ETHHNX9HB6VOJY0R/Ciani_Deluge%2C+Two+Hills%2C+Blood%2C+Oil%2C+Turbulent+Sea+Rising_5+copy+3.jpg Deluge Paintings - Two Hills, Blood, Oil, Turbulent Sea Rising Like the cliffs at Bolinas towering over the sea. I imagine a future with blood and oil falling down those cliffs and falling into the bloody, oily waves. I will not be here, but my grandchildren will. A Warning of Deluge. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, Finished 10.8.2019 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1639083732286-FXTJ72VG8J0AFCFFAT45/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Vast Waters Falling Through Hills, Bones, Rocks Some paintings just happen. They appear without logic or labor. Mostly translucent Golden paint on canvas, 4’ x 3’, 6.26.2019 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1541607630680-5GJ3677H6GQOAY51GJCA/Deluge%2C-Two-White-Rivers%2C-Round-Darkening-Hills-FINAL.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Two White Rivers, Darkening Hills Before the final future Deluge, the melting of ice and snow has begun. The white cross-contour lines of the rivers define form. Water flows down the vertical format of this painting. The observer has a distant, encompassing view. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 10.23.2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1531964269819-0TUVUYUN6QRC273OYYP7/Deluge%2C-Green-Waters%2C-Oil%2C-FINAL.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, The Rain Will Not Stop After years of drought, when Bastrop burned and three of my trees died, we suffered intense heat and rainfall. Then Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. How can I not paint Deluge – the environmental rupture we face now and will face again at our final disinheritance? Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 10.22.2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1541543829669-XSCYMQO5IVRN9GUPS87U/Deluge%2C-Ice-Melt-and-Red-Waters-Falling-from-Right-Mist.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Icemelt and Red Waters Falling from the Right, Mist As if the earth had been wounded. A Warning of Deluge. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 10.2.2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646082286510-NWMC81NI3QEDEAC4VJ6S/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Dark Tide Rising Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 2.18.2022 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646083576536-8RQXZGBGHCH1F3MMBMZ0/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Blue Icemelt Torrents I did several blue paintings of water. Golden paints on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 6.22.2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1531962974886-JLSKEZJSDCLJZ3OHEXO5/Deluge%2C-Falling-Blue-Waters%2C-Green-Sky.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Falling Blue Waters, Green Sky First of several blue paintings. They often acknowledge our blue world - blue sky and blue water - now under attack. A Warning of Deluge. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, 4.26.2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1646084681948-GTCJ6OHB79M8QWV6VL4E/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Blood Falls in the Yellow Mountains, Purple Clouds Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 3.13.2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1518041663396-1YIPX8NGZ651Y75LMWVU/Deluge---Curving-Red-Water.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Curving Red Water In 2021, this was used as the album cover of Suzanne Ciani’s Improvisation on Four Sequences, Live Buchla Quadraphonic Performance. The painting included an early introduction of red. At the time I did not yet know it was blood. A dance of waters. The red I use is like painting with lipstick. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 2.18.2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1518041686566-3AF492W45JJYKY56WDHX/Deluge---White-Waters%2C+Mist.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Reseda and White Waters Falling from Right, Mist Reseda greens and white, inspired by fog in Marin County. A Warning of Deluge. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 40” x 30”, finished 2018 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1645749304927-JQ81L09FHEPWB7KQKRW5/image-asset.png Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Four White Rivers Falling into Pool The first painting in the Deluge Series. I was finishing up a series of drawings of water, and starting to paint again, muddling along. Then, in the middle of the night, I woke from a dream of four white rivers falling into a pool. I went into the studio and started painting this image new to me. I painted many paintings of water falling, all on 40” x 30”canvases. Later I moved on to larger 48” x 36” canvases. Golden paint on canvas, 40” x 30”, finished 11.15.2016 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1649472784644-1UOGMLO9AIKXSTSHN499/image-asset.png Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Black Oil on the Hills, Blood in the Rivers The more recent paintings in the Deluge Series acknowledge the connection of fossil fuels and death, thus black oil and red blood in the art. (Harsh, but sadly true.) No one knew this at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, but we. know. it. now. The UN report of February, 2022 confirms this. Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 4.8.2022. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/5a7b71660d9297d743cbbf15/621816b61f4a0e2fe1185db7/1747332295515/ Deluge Paintings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1645648352009-1MDQF5X2IBQ2V84AIPA1/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Waterfall, Blood, Pollution First painting of 2022: a return to falling reseda green used earlier in this series. Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 1.4.2022. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/5a7b71660d9297d743cbbf15/62510b9f4aa61f2027ff6964/1747332295520/ Deluge Paintings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1635109188231-FT3YMCFLD6RCB9OSE7GI/Deluge%2C+Sharp+Red+Cliffs%2C+Black+Oil+Flowing.10%2C21.jpg Deluge Paintings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1644284332021-DR3D07FTAN7MFNLUKC1V/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Bridge to the Waterfalls, Oil and Blood Streaming, Sun Setting, Storm Rising Mostly Golden Translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 12.28.21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1518039431418-FJMLR55D27TSZS15D4EI/Deluge---Red-Torrents%2C-Red-Passage.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Red Torrents, Red Passage The Deluge Series of paintings is a warning of our final disinheritance. Our weather swings from record heat and drought to superstorm and flood – and back again. I paint with the black of Big Oil – the source of carbon poisoning and climate emergency – and the white and red of the resulting ice melt and blood. This is the first of a series of 50 Deluge paintings, all painted this size in a vertical aspect. (50 smaller paintings of Deluge were painted as well.) Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, 2018. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1641499312919-HSHJAFZJIKBJ9VMFET0S/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Waterfalls, Blood, Pollution First painting of 2022: a return to falling reseda green used earlier in this series. Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 1.4.2022. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1618339090639-DYFAD4Q2S7BXUGW0KN1Y/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Oil Seeps Under an Orange Sky I drew a Deluge scene inspired by a cell image including its shapes and curving lines of attachment, and then painted this. The black shapes might be crude oil seeping out of the earth. The orange sky is in memory of the polluted sky above San Francisco after the 2020 fires. I like the pattern and energy of this Deluge painting. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, 2021. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1628635280330-1N2Y5ECSA9Y4FIQY8TJB/Ciani%2C+Deluge%2C+Ice+Cliffs+Melting%2C+Black+Oil%2C+2021.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Ice Cliffs Melting, Oil The Deluge series started as Postcards from the Future, but the UN's dire climate report that came out yesterday, on 8.9.21, confirms that that future is now. Here glaciers meIt. I started with a strong diagonal and added lovely layering, repeating rhythms that hold the painting together, and luck. Mostly translucent Golden heavy body paints on canvas. 48” x 36”, 2021. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1628625258281-4FOL2IXRJTVLJFFGYHVZ/Deluge%2C+Ice+Cliffs+Melting%2C+Black+Oil%2C+Aug+8.21.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Ice Cliffs Melting, Black Oil On August 9th, yesterday, the United Nations dire report on the global Climate Crisis came out, and President Biden is starting to push his climate agenda: has a major turning point finally arrived? I started this series as Postcards of the Future, but this summer it is clear that the crisis is now: hellish drought, fires, heat domes, floods, storms, and unprecedented melting of glaciers. Only you in the future will know if we even bothered to do our best. People hardly mention Big Oil, it is like an evil magic mirror, look at it directly and you die. So it is all tangential dancing. Can we topple our Masters? In this painting I started with a strong diagonal and went from there: lovely layering, repeating rhythms that hold the painting together, and luck. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas. 48” x 36”, 2021. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1628705728909-Y38Y5UR860ZNPU4OQ5IS/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Ice Cliffs Melting, Black Oil The Deluge Series started as Postcards from the Future, but the UN's climate report of 8.9.21 confirmed that that future crisis is now. Here glaciers meIt. I started with a strong diagonal and went on from there with layering and repeating rhythms that hold the painting together, and luck. Mostly Golden translucent heavy body paint on canvas. 48” x 36”, 8.15.2021. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1627945393750-F5XZ1MLM1IOE8PO7VGZS/Deluge%252C%2BRed%2BMoon%252C%2B1.1MB%252C%2B7.21.jpg Deluge Paintings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1618713291822-VRCBJ7AJPPE3P6L3CW68/image-asset.jpeg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Ice, Black Tide Rising The cause and effect of oil and ice. Golden paint on canvas, 48” x 36”, finished 4.16.21. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1635109188231-FT3YMCFLD6RCB9OSE7GI/Deluge%2C+Sharp+Red+Cliffs%2C+Black+Oil+Flowing.10%2C21.jpg Deluge Paintings - Deluge, Sharp Red Cliffs, Black Oil Flowing Translucent Golden paint on canvas, 4’ x 3’, finished 10.22.2021. http://www.maryciani.com/postcards-from-the-future-150-small-drawings-of-oil-and-blood daily 0.75 2026-03-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1666206162150-8GYRWPUG229XJS9N99ZE/image-asset.jpeg Postcards from the Future: 150 small drawings - Deluge, Streams of Oil Poison the River Each postcard was sent back to you from your future self as a warning of what is to come. Each is 7” by 5”, the traditional size of a medium-size postcard. They were created with archival red and black .005 and brush markers, on archival Fabriano Artistico traditional white, rough, 100% cotton watercolor paper in 7” x 5” vertical format. Each includes a drawing, and beneath it, a written title of the drawing, artist’s signature, and date. They were drawn one-a-day, in consecutive days in eight months in 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026. A ninth grouping of 31 favorites were chosen from other scattered months during those years. They are drawn with the ichor of oil and the blood of the damned. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1666206162150-8GYRWPUG229XJS9N99ZE/image-asset.jpeg Postcards from the Future: 150 small drawings - Deluge, Streams of Oil Poison the River Each postcard was sent back to you from your future self as a warning of what is to come. Each is 7” by 5”, the traditional size of a medium-size postcard. They were created with archival red and black .005 and brush markers, on archival Fabriano Artistico traditional white, rough, 100% cotton watercolor paper in 7” x 5” vertical format. Each includes a drawing, and beneath it, a written title of the drawing, artist’s signature, and date. They were drawn one-a-day, in consecutive days in eight months in 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026. A ninth grouping of 31 favorites were chosen from other scattered months during those years. They are drawn with the ichor of oil and the blood of the damned. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1666298676301-SKNZ33HWUR8ONA5LEB3N/Deluge%2C+Blood%2C+Oil.Splash...+right+size.jpg Postcards from the Future: 150 small drawings - Deluge, Blood, Oil, Splash, Stain, Crack, Break One of the series Postcards from the Future, drawn one-a-day. Professional markers on 7” x 5” Fabriano watercolor paper, 10.3.22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1666296306290-ZF4TNAPD4E6AZKPDMEZO/Deluge%2C+Oil+on+Fire%2C+10.6.22.+Mary+Ciani.+PP%2CSS.jpg Postcards from the Future: 150 small drawings - Deluge, Oil on Fire One of the series Postcards from the Future, drawn one-a-day. Professional markers on 7” x 5” Fabriano watercolor paper, 10.6.22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1666295376219-3Z8RFCTXBYMWMZBPIB7B/Deluge%2C+Blood+and+Oil+Cleave+the+Sundering+Mountains%2C+10.7.22%2C+Mary+Saslow%2Coriginal.jpg Postcards from the Future: 150 small drawings - Deluge, Blood and Oil Cleave the Sundering Mountains Yes, these Postcards from the Future are frightening views of a our world as global warming is not addressed and the earth’s ecosystem crumbles and dies along with all of us. One of the series Postcards from the Future, drawn one-a-day. Professional markers on 7” x 5” Fabriano watercolor paper, 10.7.22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1666297082577-LD7N0WPJ5TRTJJVQROI1/Deluge%2C+Spills+of+Oil+and+Blood+%E2%80%93+and+Sheen+on+Water%2C+10.9.22+Mary+Ciani.FB.SS.jpg Postcards from the Future: 150 small drawings - Deluge, Spills of Oil and Blood – and Sheen on Water, 10.9.22 Based on oil spills I have seen. One of the series Postcards from the Future, drawn one-a-day. Professional markers on 7” x 5” Fabriano watercolor paper, 10.9.22 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/6350479a332c45311d8fe77f/69aa00eec017b70e2b1e4140/1772749038216/ Postcards from the Future: 150 small drawings http://www.maryciani.com/fire-paintings daily 0.75 2025-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1741979290115-0E5FC65JOILWUACJS3DQ/Too+Hot%21+Fire%2C+Blood%2C+and+Mud%3B+Black+Oil+Falls.jpg Fire Paintings - Too Hot! Fire, Blood, and Mud, Black Oil Falls Another effect of the manmade climate crisis from burning oil and methane (“natural gas). After the seesaw of storm and drought and wind and fire comes more storm and now mud and debris slides. Black oil flows down this painting too – a symbol of the burning cause of global warming. 48” x 36”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 1.24.25. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1741979290115-0E5FC65JOILWUACJS3DQ/Too+Hot%21+Fire%2C+Blood%2C+and+Mud%3B+Black+Oil+Falls.jpg Fire Paintings - Too Hot! Fire, Blood, and Mud, Black Oil Falls Another effect of the manmade climate crisis from burning oil and methane (“natural gas). After the seesaw of storm and drought and wind and fire comes more storm and now mud and debris slides. Black oil flows down this painting too – a symbol of the burning cause of global warming. 48” x 36”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 1.24.25. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1738033202904-2WTW10JSD7FDZBJB1PKI/Too+Hot%21+Oil+Flowers+Burning%2C+A+Cerise+Sea%2C+48%E2%80%9D+x+36%E2%80%9D%2C+Golden+paints+on+canvas%2C+1.17.25.jpeg Fire Paintings - Too Hot! Oil Flowers Burning, Scorched Earth, Cerise Sea I turned to a new palette of yellow and cerise for these paintings of fire. Flowers open to the sun, and burn in the fires of Los Angeles. The soil is red with fire and blood. A view of scorched black earth stretches out beyond. The ocean glows cerise. 48” x 36”, Golden paints on canvas, 1.17.25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1740376199316-XYC121MSBMYJMMQBXYCQ/Too+Hot%21+Blooming+in+Fire+final%401x_1-1.jpg Fire Paintings - Too Hot! Blooming in Fire I needed to paint this painting. This is Los Angeles in January, 2025, and the Texas panhandle in February, 2024, and fires globally. Climate change has increased the risk of large, frequent, and severe wildfires. A palette of yellow and cerise to paint fire. 48” x 36”, Golden paints on canvas, 1.13.25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1737487003623-D3XPC2JEVGOOK3M4SYON/Too+Hot%21+Fires+in+the+Hills+and+Canyons+of+a+Golden+City%2C+48%E2%80%9D+x+36%E2%80%9D%2C+Golden+paints+on+canvas%2C+1.11.25.jpg Fire Paintings - Too Hot: Fire in the Hills and Canyons of a Golden City The Big Question: The great American West Coast city of Los Angeles was attacked on 1/7/2025, just as the great American East Coast city of New York was attacked on 9/11/2021.Why did we respond violently to the foreign enemies who attacked New York City, but not to the enemies within who attacked Los Angeles?It was not “weather” or incompetence that attacked Los Angeles. It was the violent whipsaw of the manmade Climate Crisis caused by the burning of oil or methane (“natural gas”) in our cars, factories, and civilization writ large. The resulting historic atmospheric levels of CO2 brought on a blanket of heat, rains, plant growth, and then long drought that dried everything to kindling. Violent Santa Ana winds blew cascades of embers through dry canyons to the sea, burning all before them. This was a man-made disaster that originated with the oil and gas companies and all who genuflect before them. They knew. This is their responsibility. If we are going to burn stuff to create energy, why not reject oil and turn to the sun instead? 48” x 36”, Golden paints on canvas, finished 1.11.25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1736111366410-SCAQMM9IYCTY3MRQFPC6/image-asset.png Fire Paintings - Too Hot! Pure Water Flowing into a Polluted Sea. For Cynthia. I remembered the heat of our recent hideously hot “summer” and older memories of something very different: pure cool water. Once, high in the mountains of Colorado, I was in a place where snow melted and a perfect river began. 48” x 36”, Golden paints on canvas, finished on 1.4.25. This is painted in memory of my sister Cynthia Anderson. The pure water is Cynthia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1735754243630-PPAJCTQLU3IMA0MY24KI/Too+Hot%21+Burning+Sky%2C+Water%2C+and+Oil%3B+Sun+Exploding.jpeg Fire Paintings - Too Hot! Burning Sky, Water, and Oil; Exploding Sun The sun only appears to explode in violent heat. The sun did not change. Our thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide is the variable here. One of a new series in a new palette of yellows and cerise responding to the miserable heat of the man-made “summer” of 2024 here in Texas, and worldwide. 20” x 16”, Golden paints on canvas, finished on 12.30.24. http://www.maryciani.com/new-cover-page-2 daily 0.75 2024-07-30 http://www.maryciani.com/about-me-1 daily 0.75 2025-11-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1439609200836-Q9RUXBQU44ZA09YNVE2E/signature+for+squarespace+72.jpg Looking Back http://www.maryciani.com/poetry daily 0.75 2025-11-13 http://www.maryciani.com/flood-book daily 0.75 2025-01-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1445374017412-GUQJRGVJ3R6ZE1GPRRCF/FLOOD+book+pic.png Flood Book https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1477606716857-YNTIKH1JMNTOFO6L2958/image-asset.png Flood Book http://www.maryciani.com/resume daily 0.75 2025-11-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/1540228111869-6RX93AH8PLB80JR2E8UW/signature+for+resume+300++Black+on+White+copy.jpg Resume http://www.maryciani.com/artofwarning-thedelugepaintings-maryciani-page-1 daily 1.0 2026-03-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/4aba5c4b-7209-4452-8ced-542eff5d0462/Self+Portrait+with+mirror.8.24.small_.jpg Artist Statement: Art of Warning and Witness - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54051cc6e4b0feb6e5da1ff5/2b6ffbb4-904e-4d4c-9fec-c6d81caebc8e/Polyptych+SMALL+webpage.png Artist Statement: Art of Warning and Witness http://www.maryciani.com/store daily 0.75 2023-02-07