Eau Claire Regional Arts Center
316 Eau Claire St - Eau Claire, WI 54701

Information: 715-832-2787

Exhibit at Janet Carson Gallery. Elegance & Simplicity Beth Stoddard: "In these landscapes I confront the seeming dilemma of painting from life in post-abstract times. My landscapes are both representations of a particular place and arrangements of shape and color with an abstract awareness. While working from life in the open air, it is as much my concern to capture the immediacy of the scene as it is to draw attention to the surface qualities of the finished piece. Thus there is a specificity to the paint handling of each individual evergreen or cloud in a painting, for example, alongside an intentionally simplified, flat handling of planes, such as grass, creating an awareness of the painting as a formal arrangement. The square format of these pieces lends itself to the illusion of spatial depth while simultaneously acknowledging the immediate reality of the flat panel." Hope Greene: "Standing and staring out over lakes rich with symbol and danger, one must make the decision to either move forward into those charged depths or stay on the shore with dry feet, watching the exhilarating drama unfold from a safe, gray distance. Using regional lakes as a metaphor for what is unknown, these photographs depict the mental landscape of choice, the breathless grip of the place between knowing a significant decision must be made and taking the step forward into the consequences of that decision. The series uses word play and various photographic techniques to poke gently at the increasingly fragile link between photography and reality. This show is dedicated to M.G. who has watched me standing at the edge of many a lake and has never in all those years stopped calling me in. Hope works in both antique and modern photographic processes, and is keenly interested in myth, memory and the mental landscape.