I’m honoured to be juried into this group show. Artist’s receive 100% of sales. My piece “Dark Mining” is motivated by the extractive industries and ways in which the geology of landscape is carved out, dug out, exploded apart and eventually abandoned.
Dark Mining. 2020. 34x42” oil and acrylic on canvas on wood panel. $1800
2020 happened like a ( bat? ) out of hell!
A diseased something or other, (mistreated wild animals? an escaped lab experiment?), we don’t know all yet. A reminder that the organics of “us” is indeed vulnerable!
Like a Si-Fi film we are able to cope with the situation of mega restrictions to stop the spread of this contagion; virtually we connect to the world.
A marvellous ability and a surprising amount gets done. What doesn’t get done or seen is our need to touch; our spontaneity to just go somewhere, visit friends, stay over night; have dinner together; etc etc!
It strikes me as spooky that symptoms of this Covid-19 virus are a loss of taste and smell, one of our essential senses for connecting human to human, sensing danger and enjoyment of life. What does it mean? The alien we’ve somehow created escaped from the fracking mines or the ancient salt lakes of the lithium fields or maybe its a weird animal that has evolved from all the floating plastic in the oceans but it could be that we brought too many mangoes to Scandinavia.
Brilliant scientists are on the front lines ready to save the year with vaccines. How do we thank these people for giving us hope?
Yet again we are rescued from the likes of Small Pox, Measles, Polio and other killer diseases. Hope is what we have.
Meanwhile art making continues across the world.
My collaboration on The Extraction Project with Brooke Holve will culminate in a featured exhibit at
Seager /Gray Gallery, Mill Valley California, July 2021.
Here is a pic of the catalogue/exhibition guide, published by the Codexfoundation.org edited by Sam Pelts
“A multi-media, multi venue, cross-border art intervention that will investigate extractive industry in all of its forms (from mining and drilling, to the reckless exploitation of water, soil, trees and marine life and other natural resources).”
Materiality Re-Mined pages 110 - 113 in the catalogue. A digital “sketch” of our mobile phone project that seeks to expose the trail of minerals and elements mined to build the devices we depend on!
““I think the best art feeds the soul of civilization. Think about all of the art, from day one that has transcended wars, famines, the fall of empires. I think that artists can directly and indirectly address this existential moment.”
Richard Misrach”
ART ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS
My second inclusion into an online exhibition with the Jen Tough Gallery.
LEADS TO A FOREST, mixed media on Arches heavy paper. 30x20”. white wood frame, selling for $1000 inc frame.
One of my paintings has been selected for this group show, “Rough Around The Edges”. Curated by Jen Tough of Jen Tough Gallery Santa Fe New Mexico. You can access it here
Tree, Rock and Low Cloud. 48x48” (122x122cm). Acrylic on panel Email me for details
Work continues on the collaborative project with artist, Brooke Holve while I’m currently in Somerset England and Brooke is in Sebastopol California.
Some of the project is complete and stored at Brooke’s studio.
The Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley will show the work in July 2021 if all goes according to plan during this ongoing pandemic.
I am researching into some of the minerals mined for our devices and used in alternative energy. It is my aim to give a visual language to the mining of Rare earth elements and conflict minerals and /or mining practices that engages and informs the viewer.
I love the process of discovering a trail of information as each inquiry leads to another. A rich sequence of questions. This project deepens my fascination with the magical properties in the substance that lays in the depth beneath our feet. Man has miraculously developed the raw commodities of the earth to create the devices we all now depend on. The dark side is evident in the destruction this mining causes. How do we maintain a balance?
Here are a few snapshots of some of studies on this topic..
Mining Mountains
