As I continue to explore how Aboriginal art expresses a deep and complex relationship to the land, I am also interested in how the art/land relationship shows up in our Western cultural tradition. Ross Bleckner, typically described as an American abstract painter, takes a lot of his imagery from his experience with nature. From an interview with Denise Green:
I actually remember driving down a highway in the wintertime when there were no leaves on the trees and seeing the sun set really low in the back of the trees. The pattern, intensity, verticality and the strobe of the sun was so fascinating because it was both an image and a landscape and it became the whole other thing. Because of its density and light it became almost cinematic. And that became an idea for a painting…
The work for me is just a vehicle to explore the idea of spirituality.
Selection, by Ross Bleckner
Deborah – if you Google – Kate Hemenway – you can see how yet another artist negotiates information available to us in the Western countries from the standpoint of statistics and abstraction.
I looked up Ross Bleckner’s work, on the net….some remarkables stuff… I like!
I took a look at Kate’s work–a very interesting example of the merging of analytical/aesthetic concerns. Thanks for that reference. And glad you responded to Bleckner’s work. He’s very strong.