Portfolio
Margaret Berry
12
Red Harvest
Ogallala Aquifer
My encaustic images reflect
these strong, elusive elements
in contrast with the enduring
land: horizons, seasons, weather
patterns, fertility, cycles of growth
and fruitfulness. In some works,
there is tension between fluid
sky and tended earth, between
free-form clouds and orderly
parallel crop lines. In others,
the tension is between flow and
control of the wax, sometimes
between a painted surface and a
poured one. For example, in the
Fields series, the skies are more
than 30 coats of paint paired
with all-or-nothing pours over the
bamboo sticks depicting cultivated
land.
On a larger scale, my work
hints of the man-versus-nature
issues of our time: pure atmosphere
versus pollution, sustainability
versus adequate food
and aquifers versus pipelines.
Currently, there is much discussion
about placing an oil pipeline
through the Ogallala Aquifer, the
largest underground ocean in the
world, just below the Sandhills
of Western Nebraska. Aquifer
series deals with both the layers
of this discussion and with the
real layers of sedimentary soils
that filter precipitation. In a
democracy, we form sediment
of opinion that hopefully filters a
result that is the best for man and
for the land.
see, absorb,
forget, create….
It was an epiphany when I
finally connected my love affair
with raked Zen gardens to the
contoured fields of the Midwest.
The contracted form of a
designed garden expresses the
same peacefulness of repetitive
curved lines and the same
adoration of the land. Even in my
exploration of more whimsical
subjects like candy soda bottles
Fall
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