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Encaustic paintings
Landmarks : Watermarks
LANDMARKS : WATERMARKS
Christy Diniz Liffmann 2008
Opening reception is September 12, 2008
Orchard Gallery, Bethesda, Maryland
Rice fields of Louisiana mesh with those of China; streams, rivers, ponds and marshes come into play - their exact location is not important - only their memory.
These paintings express my concerns for the “footprint” we leave upon the land.
Two pieces from this new series were accepted into the national juried exhibition "ON THE EDGE" at the 2nd International Encaustic Conference at Monserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA June 6, 2008
As far back as I can remember I’ve always been drawn to nature. Dirt, water, mud, seeds, plants, flowers, trees, fruits, water, water, water, clouds, sand, rocks, more water, trees, vines, bugs, lizards, frogs, cows, horses, ducks, chickens, spiders, roly-poly bugs, ants, fish, sand, shells, leaves, grass, spider webs – I guess just about anything around me has made me stop, look, touch, examine, only to store away for future use. We all are exposed to these things; how we are affected, if at all, is another matter.
Often, when having made an observation: be it verbal, in a drawing or painting or captured in a photograph, I’ve had people exclaim in surprise “I didn’t see that!” or “how did you see that?” I know that I have always been acutely aware of the nature of things, their rhythms, patterns, textures, nuances of colors and forms. Of course this has become more refined with the passing of time and with the realization of my need to re-interpret this information in the act of making a painting. This is my way to communicate, to commune.
The sketchbooks of my memory are filled and yet never seem to be full. New pages present themselves as I make another trip, be it to the backyard or to another continent. Travels serve to enrich the vocabulary and understanding of constant interests. More often than not, I find myself drawn in by the novelty of something; a tree in China, a beach in my homeland of Brazil, only to realize that in fact it is so very much the same. Sameness within variety; repetition, patterns that present on a piece or fruit, irrigated fields, the face of a mountain or in the intervals of waves on the ocean - these are all part of my oeuvre.
My “memory-scapes” continue in a somewhat more abstract interpretation of the landscape. This series “Watermarks : Landmarks” evolves from previous works that were conceived out of a study trip to China. The extensive and quite possibly exhaustive use of the land for agriculture – the mass plantings of trees – from seedlings to tall timbers; orchards with beautiful, gnarled, fruit-filled trees, fields of every color and texture separated by tree-lined paths, ponds, lakes, flowing rivers and sadly dried up river beds, diverted for more “important” uses: these images were notations packed with emotional content. The use and misuse of the environment, the irreversible marks we make on the land, and ultimately those who depend on it, were all brought into focus for me.
Beauty: true or false? On closer examination I realize that what often presents as beautiful is in fact the opposite. Man-made or man- induced marks on the land often fool us with their color, pattern and textures. From afar, ponds rimmed with grassy greens and blues are in fact pits of vile and noxious residues of industry and the like. Marshes and wetlands that are carved with canals or filled for building might look harmless and quite lovely when seen from afar, but the consequences of these actions will most always produce irreparable damage.
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