For her book, Cunningham spent over 20 years illustrating how California might have looked before the arrival of Europeans. Her artwork often goes back centuries and even millennia (and on a few occasions all the way to the ice age).
Among her illustrations is a striking view of the San Fernando Valley (as seen on the book cover), not too long ago with a grizzly bear in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains overlooking uncorrupted land. Another local scene by Cunningham shows San Bernardino with 15-foot-tall sun flowers. These plants were thought to be extinct since 1937, but recently some were found near LA. In "State of Change," this awe-inspiring painting is juxtaposed with a modern freeway on-ramp.
While researching the book, she studied protected areas but said she also learned from studying abandoned lots and their native grasses. Nineteenth-century art was another source of reference, as was accounts by early Euro-Americans.
Cunningham also consulted indigenous elders and sometimes learned things that were contrary to what anthropologists and other scientists had stated. She seems to agree with M. Kat Anderson, author of Tending the Wild, about the critical role Native Americans could have in restoring ecosystems. One problem, though, is that indigenous people tend to be more long-term in their approaches, whereas the Federal Government tends to think in terms of months rather than centuries. Nevertheless, she is aware of cases where the government was swayed toward the long-term. This gives her hope for the future.
Story and photos: Author/artist/scientist Laura Cunningham on "Forgotten Landscapes of California" by R. Plesset
Laura Cunningham on "Forgotten Landscapes of California"