Cloud Conversation 21

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on August 19, 2015 at 2:08pm

Curator’s Comments:   

 

The works in this series of mixed media Cloud Conversations are meticulously detailed, but the methodical line work soon gives way to a quiet sense of contemplation and mystery.  The symbolic white (rune? Code?) shapes superimposed over the tops of the landscapes suggests a primal, cryptic language spoken by the mountains and trees.  The starkness of their contrasting white assigned value could also suggest a negation of sorts; as if the shapes were cut from, rather than layered over, the landscapes.  I’m particularly attracted to this piece, designated as number 21.  The soaring height of the tall trees offers a great depth of space and movement as opposed to the static graphic symbol, as well as the regularly patterned thin line work within the piece. The placement of the symbol towards the top of the piece nicely suspends the visual weight, and lifts upward as the trunks lean in.  Cloud Conversation 17 has a distinctly different set up of the composition, and tension between forms.  The graphic glyph/symbol in this work appears as a counterpoint to the large rock formation in the foreground, and subsequent horizon.   I like the implication of the half-moon shape, as it implies an elemental shift, or fundamental spatial designation.   For me, the drawing in this work sets up an interesting juxtaposition, or tension between organic structures and mechanical thinking.  Perhaps the artist’s hand is somewhere in between the two.