Artwork copyright Suze Woolf. Photo courtesy of the artist, 2023.

Artwork copyright Suze Woolf. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, by Everything Time Studio, 2023.

Artwork copyright Suze Woolf. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, by Everything Time Studio, 2023.

Young and Old Alike, 2008

Suze Woolf
(American, born 1952)

Location: Elk Ridge Elementary, Buckley

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Young and Old Alike documents both the destruction and the beginnings of recovery from the 2003 Needle Creek Fire, near Harts Pass, in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington. Woolf painted it after hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. The fire burned both small, young trees and old giants like the gnarled, twisting, and burled tree trunk in this painting. Woolf sees “unusual beauty” in the burnt landscape.

Woolf is a life-long outdoor person. She has watched glaciers shrink and burnt forests increase all over the North American West. At first, she painted beautiful landscapes of nature but she soon became interested in showing ecological disasters. The results are both beautiful and disturbing, and painting becomes a meditation on our climate crisis. Her close-up portraits of burnt trees are a metaphor for humans cooking the planet.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with White River School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Seattle-based artist Suze Woolf creates paintings, artist books, and installations. She explores themes of climate change in natural and industrial landscapes. Her artworks bring attention to what people don't usually notice.

Suze Woolf is a life-long outdoor person who loves to represent her native Northwest. She studied printmaking and ceramics at the University of Washington in Seattle.