This afternoon I went down to Chattanooga's Hunter Art Museum to see an exhibit by Jeffery Morton, an art professor at Covenant College. The art work he had displayed was fascinating, especially how the colors he used drew me in as a viewer. His are was not necessarily representational--it was mostly more abstract, but it was also depicting things from life and landscapes. Two small paintings, both about tornados, showed layers on layers of paint, with the bold spiral swirls of the tornado lines on the top.
The largest work he has on display at the museum is "50% Chance of Rain", which is abstract, but shows the motion of bluebirds swooping down and finding bugs for food. There were also two pencil drawings of power transmission lines, on top of a field of arrows, where he had meticulously drawn a grid of squares and put an arrow in each square, thereby showing how the wind had been blowing that day, but also bringing to mind the electromagnetic fields created by the power lines. Amidst the lines were contant structural swirls of wind.
In his lecture he took us through slides of many of the paintings which have influenced his style, and then through the development of his painting over the years. He put particular emphasis on the influence of place in his work; when he lived in Japan he made landscapes that evoked the Japanese mountains, fields, and sea, then he lived on a Menonite farm and painted corn fields, and here in Chattanooga he has found himself increasingly drawn to air. He painted the air, and things in the air: fireflies, mosquitos, birds, wind, and power lines. It was wonderful to hear his wonder and reflection on place, and his painting and making art in response to the creation around him.
Posted by swanson at februari 21, 2004 4:36 EM