Liminal Desert presents a portrayal of colliding ecosystems, a phenomenon when opposites meet. Desert succulents and cacti mingle with sponges and sea anemones; a toad and jellyfish interact. This work depicts collapsing space, time, and the binary?an ambiguous head space, bringing to light the similarities between an aquatic world and a dry one, the interconnected relationship between the two. While these two worlds may appear opposite, this painting reveals how cacti and succulents are similar in appearance to coral life, how the sand of the desert is the sand of the sea. Being aware of the concurrence between life forms will manifest a greater understanding of and concern for the environments and ecosystems, which we cohabit. With the rising and falling of coastlines, the divisions that resemble separation will blur, and land and sea will be forced to interact and adapt to coexist.
DW addition--keep?
In a description by Stanford Professor (Medicine) Abraham Verghese in his award-wining novel, The Tennis Partner*: I think they found it deliciously eerie to look around at a landscape that begged for water and picture how water had once been everywhere, that the buttes and arroyos had once been canyons and gorges, that the cacti and creosote bushes stood in for coral and sea urchins, and the rattlesnakes lurking in the dry sand stood in for sightless deep-sea creatures. "Oh," Jacob asked, tilting his head to me, "could it happen tomorow?" "No, it'll never happen again," I said with the utter confidence and unshakable authority of a parent who wills nature to spare his children.
*1998 HarperCollins, p. 112. |
