TERRA FORMS

"Terra Forms" features the work of five artists who share a deep concern for the environment. Mandy Howe, a DeBlois member, notes "I spend time outside, become fascinated with a particular place and my visceral response to that place leads to a series of paintings that explore the colors, spaces, marks and energy of that area and what lives and grows there." Her wonderful new work includes drawing, printing, collage and acrylics.

Artist Jason Smith says "My work is inspired by historical, ancient mythological and cultural ideas, human origins, mysticism, religious beliefs and symbolism. I am on a never-ending journey tracing the story of earth and all its inhabitants past and present."

Brenda Wrigley Scott, studio artist and potter, has her work in private collections nationally. Her recent paintings of birds display new experimentation with color and texture. Backgrounds are suggestive of powerful abstractions of avian environments in nature.

The stunning work of sculptor Alex Perrine encourages the viewer to think about humanity's effect on the natural world and provokes discussion about trash, recycling, repurposing and the impact we have on the environment.

Of the extraordinary three dimensional work of Krzysztof Mathews he writes, "My own imagination draws from a dialogue between science fiction and reality in which the borders have become nebulous, creating an ecosystem of cyborg life forms, adapted to a world shaped by the tangent evolution of myriad technologies, taking forms very much like and yet also unlike those living creatures we know and recognize."

I spend time outside, looking at nature, up close, or far away. I become fascinated with a particular place and then intensely focused on how to paint what I see there. My visceral response to a particular place leads to a series of paintings that explore the colors, spaces, marks, and energy of that place, and what lives and grows there. It is an ongoing exploration of paint and painting anchored in the natural world.

Making paintings about and from the landscape challenges me to develop my craft, my creative process, and create new structures and spaces in my paintings.

In some of my earlier work I used topographical maps to structure my paintings and drawings. And in recent work I am using topographical maps again to describe habitats and their changes over time. These recent paintings all include drawing, printing, collage and acrylics, and are the beginnings of a larger work in progress. I hope to develop this series on a large scale going forward.

From some of the earliest days of storytelling, we have seen the theme of artificial life, whether this be the enchantment of objects imbued with agency, life brought to sculpted figures such as the tale of Pygmalion’s beautiful statue in ancient Greece or the rampaging Golem of Jewish legend, or even playful animate puppets such as Pinocchio or Petrushka. The dawn of the “Golden Age” of science fiction brought the emergence of the robot, and with it a fascinating mirror of our own role in the world. The subsequent idea of the android allows us to evaluate questions of our ethics, our identity, and even our future, as well as confronting us with the uncanny valley, where the simulacrum of life may evoke discomfort or even fear. A common subject of these stories, particularly in the cyberpunk literature of the 1980s, was the idea whether we might indeed create beings that would replace us entirely and what responsibility we might have in birthing a new race of artificial beings. In this, we find the idea of the cyborg, or cybernetic organism. Some may take the form of a surface that conceals a cold mechanical skeleton, while others are a true fusion of flesh and steel.

We now live in an age where the boundaries of science fiction and reality have become increasingly nebulous. The growth of digital technology has now provided a world of drones, autonomous vehicles, and the evolution of increasingly sophisticated software capable of learning and adaptive problem solving. Nanotechnology, 3D printing and genetic engineering allow us to fabricate all manner of things that would have been literally impossible a generation ago. Customized prosthetics not only can replace missing limbs, but may even provide new capabilities. Our very interaction with digital media changes how we live, think, and learn. With this newfound power, however, the ethical questions raised by previous myths and stories becomes even more relevant. Herein, imagination provides a map of possible outcomes, some good, some ill, some symbiotic.

My own imagination draws from this dialogue to create an ecosystem of cyborg life forms, adapted to a world shaped by the tangent evolution of these myriad technologies, taking forms very much like, and yet also unlike those living creatures we know and recognize.

Alexander Perrine is a sculptor who works with trash to create lifelike human figures in a series called “Bodies of Waste” which he started in 2007. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1983 and grew up in Jamestown Rhode Island. Currently he lives in Denver Colorado. His initial artistic influences include his mother, Susan Perrine, a fiber artist and her community of artistic and artisanal friends. Other initial influences include his art teachers from Jamestown elementary and middle schools and a chance encounter with the trash artist Thomas Deininger at the Newport Art Museum in 1999 and his college professor and fellow sculptor Duncan Hewitt. Alex graduated From University of Southern Maine in 2007 earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with a focus on sculpture.

Through his art, Alex seeks to encourage the viewer to think about humanity’s effect on the natural world, and provoke discussion about trash, recycling, repurposing, and the impact we have on the environment.

My current work celebrates flora And fauna and the vibrancy and nuances of the natural world. The Avian series features birds in a texturally depicted background. A patina of "aged" color and texture add dimension to the paintings on paper. I present these paintings in a "floating" style frame and celebrate the actual edges of the papers.

My work is inspired by historical, ancient mythological and cultural ideas human origins, mysticism, religious beliefs, and symbolism. I am constantly questioning the unknown, lost civilizations, the Darwinian timeline, and on a never-ending journey tracing the story of earth and all its inhabitants past and present.