Vic Guhrs is an artist and writer who
takes his inspiration from the natural world, the mysteries of
wilderness, and the uncharted no-man’s land of the soul where man
and animals meet.
Born in Germany, he came to
Africa at the age of twenty-two in search of a life in remote places
among wild animals. After completing his art studies in
Johannesburg, he moved to Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, where he spent
the next twenty years observing, sketching, and painting, and
learning the ways of the wild.
Twenty years in a remote
bush camp have left an indelible mark on his sensibilities as a
painter and writer. “If you live among wild animals, you can’t help
being made aware of an ancient connection between us. In our long
history on this planet our paths converged in more ways than we care
to admit. The biological kinship is obvious: they are made of the
same cellular structures, with blood and bones and brains, and they
breathe the same air and eat the same food.
But there’s a
spiritual connection, too; a common soul that binds us together on a
profound and fundamental level; the animal spirit still lives in all
of us.
His art – both painting and
writing – reflects the insight Guhrs has gained into the mysteries
of this hidden bond. Not content to portray the superficial
appearance of wild animals, he tries to shed light on those elusive
moments, both in nature and in our dreams, where the barriers that
separate us are dissolved.
