Overview of my new work…

I’ve been working over the past several months developing a new body of work, roughly entitled ‘Work from the Extinction Layer’ or maybe ‘KT Boundary’ even. Anyhow, I’ve included the overview of this forthcoming project, which I completed for a project grant opportunity from the South Dakota Arts Council. Let me know what you think, the previous post includes some rough sketches which I’ve been developing in pursuit of this new work. I’ll know in a few months if this proposal will be accepted from the SDAC, should be a great project to make happen. (Revised note – I did indeed receive a 2011 SDAC Artist Project Grant)

Overview of the Project

… involves the development and production of a new body of abstract landscapes drawn directly from the South Dakota Badlands. A major component of this project is focused on a research excursion to the Badlands, to explore a significant aspect from the ancient landscape, a sedimentary layer of darkened iridium-enriched earth, called the KT Boundary.

Iridium itself is a rare element found on earth. It can be found primarily within outer cosmic bodies, such as meteors, that when impact our earth, leave traces of iridium in their violent aftermath. Indications of this element, here on Earth, often revel past cosmic events. This particular layer of enriched earth found within the Badlands corresponds directly with a mass-extinction of prehistoric life between the Cretaceous and Paleogene time-periods.

I would like to explore this layer first-hand, via a research excursion, in order to better capture the unique visual language of this landscape feature. I believe this to be a necessary venture to ensure the physicality of these forms are well translated and truthfully developed. During this excursion, my attention would be focused on creating hundreds of quick-sketches, as well as taking a number of digital still images, in the pursuit of capturing this layer of earth for later use and development in regards to this new body of work.

Within this body of work, I would work exclusively on a 2 3/8 inch gallery-profile stretched canvas, heavy cotton duct, with the medium comprised of non-traditional oil-sticks which often utilize modern synthetic pigments. This unique medium combination allows for the creation of work that has the look of traditional oil painting, yet has an average drying time of a day, as opposed to several months or even years in some instances. This will allow the exhibition of this work to the public within a much shorter period, making it more accessible in the near future.

Further added to the work, I would like to incorporate traces of the layer of iridium-enriched earth, into the actual oil pigments. This process I believe would create a more unified and real connection between the actual artwork and the ancient landscape that inspired it. I envision a bold and dynamic exhibition space, filled with these intimate abstract paintings, with large swaps of richly layered earth-tones intersected by dark piercing layers, representative of this blackened layer of iridium-enriched earth.

I believe these motifs to be a natural progression and a symbolic meeting of the themes I have pursued within all my past work: the connection between the forces of the natural world juxtaposed with the engineered world which we occupy, as well as the dominant creation and mortality themes which have remained a constant throughout my previous work over this past decade.