Nature Reperceived

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The exhibit's forty-three other mixed-media works by local artists also examine aspects of nature. Some of the works comment on nature besieged by human development. Clinton Snider's Tree and Fence is dominated by a knobby stump in the foreground, a living tree turned fallen soldier, with cookie-cutter housing developments looming in the background. Rick Pas's two large photorealistic paintings depict sparrows in super-market parking lots. In one, three sparrows crouch under a car in winter. One is dimmed in shadow under the car, and ominous icicles hanging from the car door seem to be targeting the other two. In the other, a sparrow perches cheekily on a shopping cart handle. Its spunk and verve amid the shiny, hard reflective bars of the cart and the hard surfaces of car door and asphalt convey an unkillable resilience of nature, embodied in the tiny sparrow body, even amid the sterility of sealike parking lots. The viewer smiles, rooting for the sparrow.

Nature Reperceived is on display at the Gallery Project through Sunday, October 22.

[Review published October 2006]