Becoming the Poem
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Date
2024-05-31
Authors
Beerdat, Ashley
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
My MFA thesis recognizes the interconnectedness of all living beings. The paintings I created immerse the viewer in landscape scenes spanning anywhere between eight feet in height to eighteen feet in width. Inspired by natural formations, an important aspect of my studio practice is engaging with my sensory apparatus (sight, sound, and touch) through which I attempt to materialize how I perceive other life forms and environments. In short, my painting methodology is heavily process-based where intuition and the senses direct the trajectory of the work. The pictorial language of my paintings is largely based on organic and biomorphic imagery which appears to grow, slink, and unfurl through the space of the paintings. These travelling forms on the canvas parallel the sensory processes of the human body. Conceptually I also explore my relationship to nature, the past and future through material means and methods such as rotating the canvas while painting, thinning and thickening the paint, pooling colours, and layering brushstrokes (Fig. 1). Through this, I seek to embed myself in the material processes, forming highly saturated, dense landscapes that speak to the vastness and evolution of nature as well as our own human embeddedness in it. I chose landscape as the main theme of my work because it represents an accumulation of deep time, present in rock formations, gigantic trees and ancient spaces that were formed over millions of years. More importantly, the resilience of nature resides in the fact that its creation is ongoing just like my painting practice which also evolves as each painting informs the next. Through its conceptual and formal elements this thesis exhibition considers nature’s resilience, that is the ability to rise above ecological disasters, such as extinction, wildfires, flood and draught — nature’s ability to survive.