Laufey Vilhjalmsdottir Bustany
"Wildflowers"
“And all the field’s blossoms in many hundred shades
Stood drooping (in the sunshine), pair by pair.”* – Birger Sjoberg
I have most often painted subjects related to my native Iceland, and other seemingly far off places, but here I was drawn to focus on a particular landscape closer to my adopted US home–the National Great Swamp. I visited the swamp in early August when hollyhocks were in bloom, and again in late September as the ragweed and asters were competing for tallness, and other wildflowers were going to seed. It has taken me decades to focus on this home, somehow having been captured not only by the light and poetry of the Arctic where I grew up, but also certain political ideas and movements, notions of exile and personal/national identity, and the ways of capturing them, respectively, in abstract and/or realist forms.
However, my past work and ideas are reflected in these current pieces as well. That is, specifically, how to represent the structure of music using color and form, and translating language and verse into visual studies. Here, as with music or language, I see nature as expressing a structure, a rhythm, allowing for an imaginative space between the conscious and subconscious world—as if to create a dialogue between the two. www.bustany.com
*From the Swedish poem/song "Den forsta gang Jag sag dig" 'First time I ever saw you.'- Fridas Visor
Stood drooping (in the sunshine), pair by pair.”* – Birger Sjoberg
I have most often painted subjects related to my native Iceland, and other seemingly far off places, but here I was drawn to focus on a particular landscape closer to my adopted US home–the National Great Swamp. I visited the swamp in early August when hollyhocks were in bloom, and again in late September as the ragweed and asters were competing for tallness, and other wildflowers were going to seed. It has taken me decades to focus on this home, somehow having been captured not only by the light and poetry of the Arctic where I grew up, but also certain political ideas and movements, notions of exile and personal/national identity, and the ways of capturing them, respectively, in abstract and/or realist forms.
However, my past work and ideas are reflected in these current pieces as well. That is, specifically, how to represent the structure of music using color and form, and translating language and verse into visual studies. Here, as with music or language, I see nature as expressing a structure, a rhythm, allowing for an imaginative space between the conscious and subconscious world—as if to create a dialogue between the two. www.bustany.com
*From the Swedish poem/song "Den forsta gang Jag sag dig" 'First time I ever saw you.'- Fridas Visor
Mary Alice Copp
"Disequilibrium"
The universal decorative use of diamonds and triangles interests me. Native American blankets, African textiles, New Guinea shields, all have repetitive use of these elements. In my paintings I am using triangles and diamonds to investigate depth, flatness, movement and the force of color. This series is painted with oil paints on heavy-duty watercolor paper, which has been gessoed black. All paintings are 7 feet by 20 inches. They may be hung vertically or horizontally, individually or in combinations. www.maryalicecopp.com
