Artist's Statement

Virginia Bowen         

The Pattern Series, my most recent work,  includes representational images of butterflies, coral, glaciers, and other environmentally fragile natural forms painted in oil, acrylic and watercolor.  The view is often closely cropped, and focused on the intricate fractal patterns created by nature.  I am fascinated by the complex but unified intricacies of these patterns that repeat with endless variety on a micro and macro level.  The transformative nature of these images suggests that what we perceive is not all that is, and everything that is, is transitory.  The observation of a thing has the power to change that thing. We, as both observers of nature and as a part of nature, influence the fragile balance of this world, often to it’s detriment.   What emerges from these paintings, is a momentary glance at the complex and fragile relationship between ourselves and nature. 

The series of mixed media paintings, entitled Indicators, explores the intermutual character of elements in the environment.  Humans create technology (biotechnology, hazardous materials, weaponry) which has the potential to cause irreparable damage to the earth.   We are not aware of an imbalance in the environment until it is indicated by the threat to something that we value (Monarch butterfly, frog, human life).   These works also serve as indicators, pointing to and making visible questions of imbalance.  Layers of maps of California, graphite drawings, beeswax and oil paint evoke the interconnected, transparent -nature of man-made and natural elements. Through the material process of painting, drawing, pouring, and collaging materials, a discourse unfolds.  I juxtapose various modes of representation as counterpoints to one another in order to question the nature of truth.  Sometimes I am in control of the materials, creating illusionistic  imagery of seed pods, pollen molecules, butterflies, or irrigation circles.  At other times I use the physical characteristics of the medium to convey equally meaningful representations.  I search for the truth of the material, and draw it out, letting the paint and wax spill and drip, build up thick, or remain translucent.    Maps, embedded in the pictorial plane, are a material manifestation of the human desire to control nature.  The related concepts of chance, containment and chaos are revealed through these material processes.   The apparent harmony of the composition is belied by a hidden imbalance, discovered only through the careful exploration of the visual indicators within the whole.