Animist Landscapes
When I paint, I usually make landscapes of imaginary desolate, northern wilderness areas, influenced by travels in Canada and Iceland. These pictures often illustrate stories about relationships between natural elements (water, smoke, rocks, animals, clouds, etc.) which have been imbued with a sort of animistic consciousness--sometimes anthropomorphized, but also beyond anthropomorphism. The natural elements can move, communicate, have their own motivations, and can sometimes manipulate their surroundings in "magical" ways. For example, "The Whale Took My Grandparents" illustrates a situation where a young girl witnesses an orca "speaking" to the land via waterspout about how her grandparents have ridden away on its back; in "Encounter at the Lake!," a pair of white trees has arrived to confront the local flora.
