Jane Guthridge is interested in looking closely at nature, abstracting and re-configuring patterns to convey underlying rhythms. The vast areas of wilderness in the West allows for a deep contemplation of the ethereal qualities of the natural world. She employs complex layers of color and light to create the sensation of deep space, using a variety of materials that bend, refract, obscure and reveal, diffusing light in various ways. As the light changes throughout the day, the work changes, creating a metaphor for life itself.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

“I abstract and reconfigure these patterns- the rich colors of the land, the shapes of plants, the patterns of dappled light through the trees-to convey the underlying rhythms and harmonies of our environment, creating a space that is somewhere between the real and the imagined.”

Zelda Zinn’s latest series is inspired by her time visiting the Arctic Circle by ship. While making photographs in this landscape, Zinn thought of all of the Arctic's early explorers: the risks they took, and the many hardships they endured. Wondering at what lead them to set off for this unforgiving and barren landscape, she imagined how they must have longed for home. Contemplating the vast empty space, she wondered about how she might give it a little warmth. This work is the result of her strong urge to mediate and domesticate the endless frozen beauty.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

“The immensity and strange stillness of the landscape were constant reminders of how small and impermanent we humans are…

My photos were an attempt to hold and hold on to this mind-bending place.”

“I had a compulsion to combine reassuring traces of culture, of home, with these wild landscapes [as] a way for me to rationalize my relationship with the Arctic, to view it in human terms… The hybrid landscapes combine interior and exterior, exotic and familiar as a framework for considering the Arctic anew.”

“Seeing this barren, majestic land in person, I thought of those who kept the home fires burning, not knowing whether their loved ones were alive or dead. How did the families left behind cope with the uncertainty? How did they carry on?”

Drawing from interpretations of nature, Tonia Bonnell’s work is an exploration into the concept that intricacy, complexity, and power can arise from the accumulation of simple and seemingly insignificant parts. In a similar way that clouds – with all their potential – are merely a collection of individual water droplets or ice crystals, the dynamic forms in Bonnell’s work are created from the repetition of a staccato mark. Color and hard edges within the organic imagery add to this dichotomy by providing contrast and variation, even though the entire drawing is created with the same basic mark.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

“Drawing inspiration from examples such as flocks of birds flying in unison, notes of music coalescing into a song, and clouds transitioning to blizzards or hailstorms, I create organic forms that suggest movement. “

Patricia Finley moves, spreads, mixes and modifies colors in order to create harmony.  Inspired by the subtleties that exist in nature, her latest series explores nuances of line, form and color.  Finley seeks to create soft gentle works that remind her of the energy in the colors of the sky as it gently lightens during sunrise, or of a forest which is a mélange of distinct shades.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

I reflect and interpret the natural world by creating art that exemplifies the softness of natural color, the subtle movement of streams, the simplicity of pure color and the elegance of natural forms.”

The spontaneous and gestural activity of mark-making in Ana Zanic’s work is closely tied to calligraphy, language, and symbolic communication. In this series, titled Migration, she is referencing her own experience of migrating from one continent and country to another and seeing it in a broader, universal context. The challenge of migration becomes humanized and seen as a natural occurrence; one that is repeated through the ages and across many species on our planet. 

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

“Through the process of creating I am investigating the inner realms of self; the longing for what is old and familiar, while placing it in a new context, never replicating any readable aspects of my heritage.”

Allison Svoboda’s Refraction series is a body of work about dualities in the natural world: power and fragility, destruction and beauty. Using natural elements of wind, water, salt, stones & her own breath to move the paint, she creates large scale topographic paintings. These paintings are in response to the last of our quiet, untouched places in this world.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

“Often done on site, I sit in quiet contemplation. Once fully in touch with my surroundings, I begin my mark making.”