St. Mary's Project in Studio Art: 2010
Laine Donovan

 

 

artist statement

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Fall 2009

Spring 2010

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Thought Wandering
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Imagine you are standing on the edge of a peninsula. What lies before you is a vast panorama in which sky meets water. At sunset, the body of water reflects the colors in the clouds. As the landscape turns from vivid shades of orange, yellow and blue, the immense beauty becomes impossible to fully perceive. Before your eyes can cover the entirety of the vista, the colors have changed and the shapes in the sky have transformed into a completely different scene. As your awareness of the natural world increases, the connections between all aspects of life become clearer. The elements that make up this landscape are found within all forms of life, as well as all the things that allow civilization to grow. Patterns of shapes found in the sky and the ripples of the water seem very similar to those found on tree bark and rock formations. The colors of a sunset become reminiscent of the changing leaves in autumn.
Through the medium of painting, I explore questions related to essential qualities of nature and the way sensory and cognitive perceptions of the world vary. A painting is an object, as well as a representation or illusion of something else. It has the ability to create tension between what is considered real and what is considered an illusion. My process involves a translation of images of nature into abstraction. I use abstract form as a means of visually depicting the way different aspects of nature are connected and involved in constant change. The images that I make have an elongated format so that the viewer has to move his/her focus across the image over time. This action engages the viewer in the idea that a landscape is impossible to experience within a single moment.
In making art, I can only represent one individual view; an illusion of how life can be understood. In fact, one may posit that all perceptions of reality are only illusions when compared to any other view, and I happen to believe that the illusion is what makes life interesting. This perceptual way of understanding the world is only my illusion of reality, but I invite you to experience it with me.