I am a witness.
All Polar and frozen landscapes are dominated by an absence that is in stark contrast to the lush landscapes of the rest of the planet. In this absence, I am inspired by the clarity I have seen in my travels to Antarctica, Iceland, Alaska, and the High Arctic near the North Pole. Without the “noise” of animals, people, and plants, the landscape reveals itself as an abstraction of shapes and colors. Every watercolor I paint is an exploration of the absence and the clarity created in these frozen worlds.
As a watercolorist, I work with the transitory nature of water. Of course ice melts, but some of my subjects include ice that is thousands of years old. In all of my paintings the background noise of global warming is present, making even superstructures vulnerable. The balance of fragility and strength of frozen worlds mirrors the balance between water and ice.
Like everyone else last year, I was unable to travel. I began to paint an “interior landscape” – what was I thinking about? What had captured my imagination? During the lockdown, we started to see images of animals taking over the places that humans had abandoned. Known as the “Anthropause,” animals moved quickly into “our” worlds.
Drawn to their resilience, a new series of works emerged inspired by these photos animals comfortably reestablishing themselves in “our” spaces. They brought me comfort and smiles during a difficult time.
“In Hot Pursuit of the Cold and Ice” – my full-page article about my residency in the High Arctic, was published in the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1PAO5mr). My Google talk is available on YouTube (http://bit.ly/lisagorengoogle).