Opening in anticipation of Earth Day this month, Trackside Studio’s April exhibit What on Earth?! will show viewers new ways of seeing our planet.
Works in the Atrium Gallery, displayed together in a wide range of media and styles from many of the 32 resident artists, attempt to reinterpret the everyday and encourage the imagination to go beyond the visible.
“As a photographer and a physicist, my attention turns towards how nature works,” says participating artist Steve Fulghum. “An image is good if it captures a particular, even decisive, moment in the evolution of the subject through time. We are at such a decisive moment for Mother Earth. She has endured five major mass extinctions over time, but we may not survive the next. If art can encourage us to think beyond our immediate selves, it may give us a fighting chance.”
“In my painting ‘Fearless,’ I wanted to suggest the forces that complement and balance each other in our natural and living world,” says Lynn Stanley, who works in watercolor. “For the turbulence and vastness of the ocean and the rough severity of the rocks, I used large Japanese horsehair brushes, with heavy, quick strokes, on semi-absorbent rice paper. For the seagull, I wanted to show its solidity and confident stillness, so the brushes were softer, the color more dense and the strokes slower and more controlled. The sea bird and the sea exist together, confirming each other’s essence.”
Since the show opens on River Arts District’s monthly Second Saturday event, artists will be in their studios. Demonstrations from fiber artist Paige Houghton, abstract expressionist painter Sean McAusland, and encaustic artist Michelle Hamilton will take place throughout the day.
Opens April 10 (exhibit on display through May).
Trackside Studios, 375 Depot St., Asheville. tracksidestudios375.com. 828-545-2904.