Sentinels
Henrietta Shore
Musings | Monthly Muse July 2022
As a research librarian for visual arts, I was intrigued by this lithograph from an artist I had yet to encounter. After doing some research, I felt an immediate kinship with Henrietta Shore—a Canadian expat who left for the Golden State in her early 30s, just as I did. These cacti may be literal in their form and rendering, but they also spark something more imaginative—tall sentinels, as the title suggests, keeping guard, thriving, blooming, and sprawling upwards. I sense the intense heat and the dry air in the expansive, cloudless sky. As each year passes, they extend their roots more firmly, more confidently. I feel akin to these magnificent plant forms, and I think the artist that created them did, too.
Jenna DuFour
Research Librarian for Visual Arts, UCI Libraries