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Laura Feld
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My project will be 10 large paintings in acrylic about the city park. Parks are where the public and private intersect. Every city needs green places where
people can congregate, to satisfy our need for nature and our need to not be isolated, for companionship, for connection with society. Trees are essential to
us for both practical and symbolic reasons; we use them for food and shelter, for solace and the very oxygen we breathe. Being among trees can be both
calming and frightening. We’ve invested them with potent mythological qualities, reflecting this dichotomy.
My previous paintings have been about our solitary need for the forest. The small scale of the canvases depicting individual figures among trees makes
them an intimate experience. The new project will use larger canvases about the city park. Living in Houston has increased my interest in our relationship
with tamed nature – the green of both the suburbs and the city, the abundant presence of nature in daily life here, and how it has been shaped by human
design. The larger size will give me scope to deepen the interaction between people and trees, expanding the possibilities of my subject. The canvases will
work together as a whole and complement my earlier series. I will make my usual preparation process specific to Houston by sketching and photographing
Houston public parks such as Memorial Park, Hermann Park and Discovery Green. The project will not be a direct depiction of these parks, but rather a
distillation of their essential ambience.
The paintings will be exhibited in a domesticated forest setting, at “Itchy Acres”, an artist compound in the Heights, during an Open Studios event for the
resident artists. The paintings will hang from trees in a grove (see Venue Photographs). Outside of a normal gallery context, the paintings and their subjects
will display a new relationship. In the evening light, the spectators will take on the silhouetted appearance of the figures in my paintings. To document this
experience, I will photograph people among the trees, looking at the paintings of people among trees, which will become part of the body of work. Zoya
Tommy of the PG Contemporary Gallery has expressed interest and support to show this work.
people can congregate, to satisfy our need for nature and our need to not be isolated, for companionship, for connection with society. Trees are essential to
us for both practical and symbolic reasons; we use them for food and shelter, for solace and the very oxygen we breathe. Being among trees can be both
calming and frightening. We’ve invested them with potent mythological qualities, reflecting this dichotomy.
My previous paintings have been about our solitary need for the forest. The small scale of the canvases depicting individual figures among trees makes
them an intimate experience. The new project will use larger canvases about the city park. Living in Houston has increased my interest in our relationship
with tamed nature – the green of both the suburbs and the city, the abundant presence of nature in daily life here, and how it has been shaped by human
design. The larger size will give me scope to deepen the interaction between people and trees, expanding the possibilities of my subject. The canvases will
work together as a whole and complement my earlier series. I will make my usual preparation process specific to Houston by sketching and photographing
Houston public parks such as Memorial Park, Hermann Park and Discovery Green. The project will not be a direct depiction of these parks, but rather a
distillation of their essential ambience.
The paintings will be exhibited in a domesticated forest setting, at “Itchy Acres”, an artist compound in the Heights, during an Open Studios event for the
resident artists. The paintings will hang from trees in a grove (see Venue Photographs). Outside of a normal gallery context, the paintings and their subjects
will display a new relationship. In the evening light, the spectators will take on the silhouetted appearance of the figures in my paintings. To document this
experience, I will photograph people among the trees, looking at the paintings of people among trees, which will become part of the body of work. Zoya
Tommy of the PG Contemporary Gallery has expressed interest and support to show this work.