Helena Wirth
My large canvases are motivated by the natural elements and forces of nature, light phenomena, Zen meditation, astrology and the I Ching. They are often metaphors for my personal issues. The oil and acrylic colors are bold, bright, sensual, full of feeling and movement. They overlap and twist about the textured and reflective surfaces of glass, glitter and plastic. The paintings activate the space by changing as the light changes and by changing as the viewer moves within the space. They are charged with emotion as they integrate with the atmosphere in iridescent energy, mirrored reflections and abstract holographic shapes. Feelings change, life changes, each moment is new.

It is my love of life, the oneness I feel with all of life, and my love affair with light that propels my brush. The glorious sun, giver of light and sight and color, provides the magic that is moonlight, glistening snow, shimmering dew and rainbows. All of nature is a visual barometer for the mutability of light. The sea, so deep, dark and mysterious, explodes into a glittery glare of intense sunshine, sensitively changing hue, warm to cool, light to dark, a mirror of the sky. A photograph is a microchip of reality frozen in time by the wink of the camera; a detailed landscape painting is not more than a dead souvenir of only one angle of the view. Neither will ever be seen precisely the same way again, not even five minutes later! And what about the feelings that we experience when we see – the wind, the glare, the temperature, the love, the fear, the joy, the reverence? They are as much an integral part of the experience as its appearance.

Beth Ladd
The Sea Grape Series was painted over a two-year period. I began the series at a time when I chose to embrace the freedom and opportunity of abstraction, as suggested by the organized randomness of nature. The starting point was a bunch of Caribbean sea grapes washed up on the shores of Turks and Caicos. These sea grapes consisted of transparent water-filled orbs linked by filaments. In addition to being a plant form, intriguing in its variety and nebulous configuration, the sea grapes were equally suggestive of microscopic or inter-planetary design. The interchangeability of scale was irresistible.

Liberated from the dictates of representation, I concentrated on materials and color. I also chose to work at the juncture of painting and sculpture. The result is this series of relief paintings on canvases that jut several inches out from the wall. I built up the painted surfaces with paper maché and layers of scored pigment. I used, sequentially, acrylic, oil and oil bar. To introduce light and enhance texture, I incorporated into the surface found materials such as rock crystals and mirror shards.

It is my hope that, free of the confines of scale, medium and subject matter, these pieces offer the viewer an experience of texture, motion, light and layered color. Macro and micro become synonymous.

To see the universe in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wildflower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

William Blake