Emily Christenson, Steve Banks, Terry Rathje, and I all just finished the run of our group show ELEMENTAL. The show came about mostly within Steve's mind, as he thought about each of us and our individual interactions with nature. We tended to run the gamut in our group, with Emily and Terry being the most immersed in the natural world (Terry living in a rural area where the Wapsipinicon River actually flows in his backyard; Emily taking trips to Alaska to literally paint in glacier lakes - water-based oils... wha?...) to Steve being the most distant from any natural immersion (he can't even see anything green from his downtown apartment or studio windows).
I showed my most recent paintings and drawings. Same goes for Emily - she showed recent paintings and drawings from her work in the Carribean Ocean. Steve gathered driftwood from the banks of the Mississippi - the only "natural" thing he could see from his window (it's two blocks away) and constructed a passageway made of wood and fired clay totems/masks. Terry gathered willow wood from his back yard and paired it up with 2x2s that had felt the touch of a human hand, creating a construction that was inspired/informed by his recent trip to Istanbul (he had a show there), where he learned about reductive architecture.
All in all, it was a great time, and I always enjoy showing with these locals. We had great attendance at two receptions. We were featured guests for an hour-long interview on Augustana College's public radio show "Art Talks" (mp3 should always be archived here http://www.wvik.org/listings-arttalks.htm look up November 20th 2011). We had some feature coverage in the Quad City Times.
i hope you enjoy the images. click on any of these for a larger view.
