Bio-Morphic

Bio-Morphic Curator’s Statement

 This exhibition brings together works that reflect upon, interpret and reimagine living forms.

 For Dixie Brown, the act of physically interconnecting loops of yarn manifests a connection with life forms seen and unseen. Holding the yarn in her hands, she works to make visible the stories submerged beneath warming seas. The time and labor of recreating kelp-like tendrils allows the artist the time necessary to consider human impact on plant and animal species. These quiet, labor-intensive pieces invite both contemplation and action.

 Tarra Lyon’s paintings are driven by process and personal experience. Each begins with a personally symbolic image—often from the plant and animal realms. Her paintings speak to the show’s theme as her meticulously detailed renderings of flora and fauna are layered into more abstracted, open-ended compositions.  These works, which draw a dreamlike inspiration from memory, also speak to “Bio” as life story (biography).

 Hiking in the hills that surround her home in Ukiah, Ana Llorente gathers the leaves and other materials for her Hybrid Species series. Returning to her studio, she begins the work of observing colors, textures, patterns shapes and angles. She then cuts, reshapes and combines. The new forms that emerge both memorialize and reinvent these natural treasures. Mushrooms she lays on paper release their spores leaving their traces: an afterimage reminiscent of a photogram.

 Whether through the repetitive motion of crochet, building a narrative from layered imagery and countless brushstrokes or walking, observing and making, each artist has described her process as meditative. The delicate handmade worlds that have resulted offer space to slow down and consider the elements that shape and sustain our lives.

 ..................................................-Anne Wolf  January 29, 2023