{"id":36664,"date":"2018-03-22T20:35:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T02:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=36664"},"modified":"2025-11-04T17:17:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:17:19","slug":"bridging-the-gap-gallery-mars-time-explores-mans-relationship-to-nature-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/bridging-the-gap-gallery-mars-time-explores-mans-relationship-to-nature-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging the Gap: Gallery MAR\u2019s Time Explores Man\u2019s Relationship to Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"
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R. Nelson Parrish, \u201cUntitled No. 89, 90, 91\u2033, mixed media, 60\u2033 x 20\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Could Gallery MAR have discovered a match made in art heaven? Montana artist Shawna Moore and Californian R. Nelson Parrish produce very complementary work, to the point that even their color palettes and produced textures are similar. In MAR\u2019s latest exhibition,\u00a0Time<\/em>, the two artists are brought together to showcase an abstract approach to representing human relationship to nature through art. Using encaustic, resin, wood, and other media, Moore and Parrish have provided an exhibition that is enticingly colorful while also approachable and visually attractive. They each take a different approach to representing natural forms that goes well beyond simple representation.<\/h4>\n

Bridging the gap between man and nature, Parrish uses resin to meld fiberglass with rich, naturally patterned dark woods. Influenced by landscapes, his work often includes strong horizontal lines like a separation between sky and Earth. His process illustrates the entangled nature of man and his surroundings, while also provoking the viewer to search and distinguish between natural and created elements. Though combined, the synthetic and natural elements do not fully seem to meld, the synthetic too bright, almost jarring against the natural wood grain to be anything but man-made. His sculptures function as a map of human influence on nature, the jarring ways in which humanity has made its mark, but also the beauty that comes from melding with one\u2019s surroundings.<\/h4>\n

His \u201cUntilted No. 89, 90, 91 (Triptych)\u201d is composed of three separate wood and resin squares which hang vertically together, the three pieces having been created out of the same long piece of wood, cut into sections, the deep grain continually running through the set. The religious terminology is obvious on some level, playing into the three squares as each a member of the Trinity, but the vertical format is reminiscent of another religious archetype, Jacob\u2019s Ladder, which often takes the form of connected panels folding in on each other, representing the bridge between heaven and Earth. His works do seem to evoke a type of transcendence, especially his hanging sculptures which require the viewer to crane their neck upwards to see them. Though \u201cTriptych\u201d is a fascinating piece, perhaps Parrish\u2019s most dynamic works are these hanging sculptures. The craggy form of his stalactite sculptures, appearing as giant icicles waiting to drop from an overencumbered rooftop, suggest something of the artist\u2019s native Alaska. His art speaks to an overwhelming awareness of surrounding, shifting landscapes and savage, unforgiving frost. Shining like ice in sunlight, the clear resin between sections of color creates a translucent illusion of floating forms, incomplete objects.<\/h4>\n
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Shawna Moore\u2019s encaustics are impressive in both vibrancy and smoothness, creating shiny fields of pastel colors imitating the most abstract natural forms. Her painting \u201cSastrugi,\u201d named for the ripples formed across snowfields in the wind, reflects this movement through the inclusion of small spots of color across the waxy surface of her painting. These colors capture both the look and feeling of wind across a snowfield, biting against exposed cheeks and noses, tiny shards of ice pricking the skin. Many of her snow paintings echo this feeling, cold represented in the image through the shiny, crystalline texture of the wax like morning frost.<\/h4>\n
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Shawn Moore, \u201cSastrugi,\u201d encaustic, 60\u2033 x 40\u2033<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A quick glance at the composition of her encaustic works might call to mind the color field paintings of Mark Rothko, but Josef Albers, a student of color relationships, light, and optics, all of which play into Moore\u2019s interest in Earth and sky, might be a fairer comparison to Moore than the deeply traumatized, Nietzschean, mythology-obsessed Rothko. Moore\u2019s use of color in all her works, like Albers, seems carefully chosen to produce a desired effect, a jarring feeling of looking at a tall cliff, the rise of an ocean tide, the numbness of fingers on a cold day. Moore\u2019s color relationships are particularly interesting in her works \u201cDown the Line\u201d and \u201cCandy Apple Gray,\u201d which feature unique, vertical compositions positioned like dramatic cliffs against a candy-colored sky. \u201cCandy Apple Gray,\u201d in particular, is fascinating in the same way as the Rubin vase, each form alternatively seeming to appear in front of the other, the negative and positive both creating an image.<\/h4>\n

Together, Moore and Parrish explore the abstract nature of landscape representation in art. By embracing the effects of color, light, and location as important elements to landscape art creation, these artists have moved from representing the visual characteristics of the land to the sensations of nature, how it feels to be outside. Though they each explore this idea differently, their works display well together in both aesthetic and conceptual content.<\/h4>\n
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Shawna Moore, \u201cUpdrift,\u201d encaustic, 60\u2033 x 40\u2033<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
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Shawna Moore, \u201cTriple Divide,\u201d encaustic, 60\u2033 x 40\u2033<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Time,\u00a0<\/em>work by Shawna Moore and R. Nelson Parrish,\u00a0Gallery MAR, Park City, until April 17, gallerymar.com.<\/p>\n