Absence
The Art Base, Basalt CO
June 13 - July 6, 2019
ABSENCE is my visual exploration of what is not present or no longer exists — from collapsing ice shelves, to inspiration and the creative force, to a mountain’s seasonally altered snow patterns.These absences can be forever or fleeting, some with the possibility of return. I am profoundly moved and challenged by the mystery of impermanence, change and renewal.
FLOW
FLOW is comprised of thirty-five gessoed and under-painted 7” x 7” binder’s board wrapped in wet, stretched 100% cotton rag paper on which letters are printed. Each piece is worked into with acrylic paint/methyl cellulose, colored pencil and finished with several coats of paste wax. The tiles are a rendition of a quote by Albert Camus which I feel describes so beautifully the mystery of human creativity. The tiles are initially displayed in an orderly grid pattern and read from the bottom left corner and then break apart into a more chaotic opening towards the end in the upper right corner.
I define the word “flow” as the divine creative force or inspiration that best describes that moment when I am in the zone — being completely immersed in my art making. Flow is the word that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi redefined to describe the optimal experience of balancing challenge and skill, where there is clarity, complete concentration and transformation of time — and where nothing else matters. It is essential to my artistic endeavor and yet it is fleeting, often with significant intervals of absence.
A man’s work is nothing
but this slow trek to rediscover,
through the detours of art, those two
or three great and simple images
in whose presence his heart
first opened.
— Albert Camus
ICE
ICE is comprised of nine 10” X 10” mixed media wood panels depicting the Larsen, Wilkins, and Pine Island breakups and affected areas. Mixed media materials: wooden cradle with archival matte board pieces adhered with PVA, textured and painted with modeling paste and acrylic paint.
The melting and collapse of ice shelves on the western Antarctica Peninsula captivated my attention and curiosity quite a few years ago. It all began with my reading about, viewing and collecting NASA remotely sensed images of the most drastically impacted areas of melting and collapsing ice shelves. As evidence of an unstable climate and a changing planet the patterns of these floating ice pieces are both beautiful and harrowing. Horrific and visually fascinating. I felt compelled to capture the patterns of the breakups by freezing the process in a moment in time as they melt and become forever absent.
MOUNTAIN
MOUNTAIN is comprised of 80 photographs selected from 611 taken between the years 2009-2019. I have always wanted to go back through and look at all the photographs and find different ways to organize and view them. This installation is the first public viewing of the photographs. These 80 photos are installed in a grid configuration showing the seasonal changes and patterns of snow moving diagonally from top left of new snow, to phases of winter snow, to melting, and then diagonally down to the right corner to the absence of snow. They were photographed in the first years with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 and later with a Canon PowerShot SX510 HS, printed on HP Premium photo paper at The Project Shop in Carbondale CO, and double mounted with 3M Super 77 photo spray adhesive onto a paste waxed wooden cradle.
I live high up on a ridge on the south facing side of Basalt Mountain. Our view of the Elk Mountain range is spectacular and the prominent view of Mount Sopris is awe inspiring. Since 2009 I have been taking photographs of the mountain from approximately the same spot on our west-facing deck. This is a spontaneous endeavor. Moved by either or some combination of the color, the light, the cloud formation, the shadows, and the snow patterns, I grab the camera and take the shot. They are taken anywhere from first light of day to mid-morning. It is the image in whose presence my day first opens.
