De Luce 1: Vegetare

“De Luce 1: Vegetare a visual delight from beginning to end. Though its material substance is modest— images of grasses and flowers, shot on super-8mm film, hand processed, and carefully structured in time — its visual effect is explosive and moving, in colors simultaneously intense and subtle. A source of the film is a consideration of the parallels between the photo-chemical processes required for the production of cinematic images and the botanical processes required for the raising of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. One of the inspiring and poignant aspects of Janis’ practice is the integration of her lifestyle into her art work. She is deeply engaged with the land she lives on and works extensively, growing an extraordinary array of plants, vegetables, fruits and flowers; and this engagement surfaces throughout her work, indicating its core of honesty and modesty. To me De Luce reads as a record of a fulfilled life, a life that understands all elements of nature to be part of a larger tapestry. It is a sublime work, in the traditional sense of depicting nature so as to communicate a sense of the world as a variegated, but unified whole.”

Grahame Weinbren, Editor, Millennium Film Journal

“In the beginning of time, light drew out matter along with itself, into a mass as great as the fabric of the world. ” —from “De Luce” [On Light] by Robert Grosseteste 13th century philosopher 1170-1253