Perennial, 2006
Oil on Canvas, 74x54"
These paintings are based in a world both observed and invented, primeval and post-apocalyptic. Nature is an indifferent witness to the human history playing out in its arena; civilization left unguarded is reclaimed without malice. The flower, with its combination of delicacy and tenacious strength, operates with powerful neutrality- a fern cracks a sidewalk not because of a political agenda but simply because the concrete is in its path. Perennials casually reenact a resurrection each year. Outlining this is the drama of edges: land meets water, sky meets sea, stem meets earth. Our own toxic speed induces imbalance, mutation, and even beauty: a collusion of leaf, claw, and junk. In subsequent work, I have layered snapshots into the paint, buried visuals that entwine the domestic and feral, hybrids of flora, fauna, and detritus.
1 comment:
Dear Laura,
I love the sense of nature in your writing as nature as a character, protagonist... I think often of weeds in the sidewalk and admire the tenacity of nature. Inspiring. The colors are beautiful as well as the textures, strong and soft at the same time, will be great to see the works in person.
Best,
Wendi
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