Smoke on Glass
I started to make these smoke pieces after a trip to Canada.I went to Nova Scotia for a residency and to teach at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. I had been a landscape painter working from the photographic image but I gave it up around this time. I didn't bring any materials with me so I could work only with what I had at hand. Nova Scotia is a bite-sized version of mainland Canada, wilderness but on a manageable scale. With two other artists I went on numerous road trips. I remember comparing the views we could see from our rented Ford Mustang with the manicured, domesticated countryside at home. We were all pretty blown away. We talked about how to burn an image in your mind, to keep a mental picture of places we visited.
To create a dialogue with this landscape I decided to use the most minimal of means. I made soot from burning church tapers. Smoke has a meandering nature, clinging to the glass as a residue, leaving a trace that I worked into. I wanted the work to have a fugitive quality connected to the way I was seeing the landscape pass by. I was thinking about afterimages and the mindless reverie of staring out the window watching the world go by or doodling on a steamed up windscreen. This trip was a formative time for me and since then my work frequently incorporates materials from places I have been to.
Fantastic Journey 2020 Smoke on Glass 140x104cm.
Undergrowth 2020 Smoke on Glass 130x90cm
