Wildlands Inspire: Arwen Donahue Spotlight

Wildlands Guest Blog by Arwen Donahue, author and illustrator

Note: Arwen is a member of the Pine Mountain Collective, the group of artists engaged in KNLT’s conservation efforts. This spring, she created a special art piece for KNLT’s midyear fundraising appeal. We invited Arwen to share her perspective on her connection to nature, her thoughts on KNLT, and her process for creating the piece.

I spent much of my childhood in Santa Fe, New Mexico, living in an earth-sheltered house with no running water or electricity. It seemed to me that we were perched right at the edge of human civilization—if we walked out the door and headed East, we immediately entered a mountainous wilderness, without houses or roads. The stars overhead compounded my sense that the universe was vast and wild. My father frequently took my brother and me hiking, camping, climbing, cross country skiing, and kayaking. 

My classmates teased me for having hair matted with sticky piñon sap and dirt under my fingernails, but I knew that I was fortunate in a way that most other kids were not. I was learning that humans are not the gravitational center of the universe. Wilderness is larger than any of our projects, no matter how impressive they may be—more complex, mysterious, and full of unfathomable wisdom. 

Acknowledging this simple fact is essential for human survival. That is why I treasure the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. KNLT understands that resilient lands and resilient communities go hand-in-hand. Its work is guided by science and energized by creativity and wonder. 

After I was invited to create an artwork for KNLT to accompany Wendell Berry’s words, I listened to Wendell’s poem “The Wild Geese,” included in the compilation The Pine Mountain Sessions, a gorgeous music and spoken word project created by Kentucky-based musician Daniel Martin Moore. The poet encounters a wild persimmon tree at the end of summer, bearing wild gifts that come once the harvest season is over: “…We open/ a persimmon seed to find the tree/ that stands in promise,/ pale, in the seed’s marrow.” 

I live on a farm in Nicholas County, Kentucky, and our own woods are scattered with wild persimmons, lush delights that feed us and the other animals who share this place we call home. I love this tree’s dark and deeply corrugated bark, and I love the way it manages to transform soil and sunlight into sweet, seedy fruits. I chose to draw cedar waxwings in the tree for three reasons: because they are fruit-loving birds; because they travel in groups, evoking the strength of a collaborative community; and because they are sublimely beautiful, sleek taupe with accents of red, black and gold. 

The artwork was created with ink and watercolor. The background, a blue watercolor wash, was digitally layered into the image. 

I am grateful to KNLT for working to help us be like waxwings in a persimmon tree: strengthened by community and nourished by wild gifts.