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| what i really need right now…. ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on panel (diptych) ~ 12″ x 36″ x 1.5″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2013 |
It’s the clouds, maybe more than anything else, that defines New Mexico for me.
The sweep of grasslands and mesas between Springer and Las Vegas, New Mexico was the inspiration for this “reconsidered” landscape. I had just left Philmont after my stint as “artist in residence” — a week during which the gripping drought was finally broken with the return of quenching rains. When I drove through that same region just two weeks prior, the grass was white with death. Now they were green with renewed life.
In addition to my own musings, this painting —as with the others in this series — incorporate text from the Robert Service poem “The Call of the Wild.”
Here, too, are the strange vertical lines I feel compelled to add to these paintings as the “final touch.”
What do they mean?
Honestly? I’m not sure….But I enjoy several interpretations:
— They delineate passageways into experiencing the land.
— They delineate force-fields.
— They are the creases in a folded-up beloved memory of a certain place, kept in my pocket and pulled out when in need of a reminder.
The lines make me consider:
— The way our memories are often compartmentalized.
— How our memories narrow. Over time, most of the details of an experience fade, but often there’s a passage that’s clear. Sometimes that passage shifts.
— How as we age, our chance to achieve our youthful dreams and passions diminishes; rusts away. but sometimes we’re given a second chance — a narrow window to try again. We need to catch it while we can.
What’s your interpretation?
