"The Sky Becomes Sediment"
Leslie Shows
2008
Collage & acrylic on wood
85 x 65 inches
“As Anne Morgan explained, 'The potential for artwork to manifest some form of mystical communication that transcends our ordinary reality is great. Abstraction lends itself naturally to this goal, since many of the concepts of spirituality are by nature abstract (such as 'infinity').'" (Robertson)
When it comes to discussing spirituality in a visual way, Leslie Shows' work does an almost perfect job of merging the familiar with the abstract. By using a combination of collage and paint, Shows maintains a beautiful balance between representational depictions of mountains, rocks, ice burgs, lakes, clouds, and other natural forms, and juicy, painterly reminders that the landscape we are seeing is contrived and imagined.
This blending of real and imagined forms gives us hope in today's often cold spiritual landscape. In Shows' work we see that technology such as photography doesn't have to be the downfall of traditional mediums. This painting demonstrates how contemporary materials and sensibilities can coexist with old fashioned ideas.
And it is clear that the combination of new and old invokes strong feeling of the sublime beauty of nature and spirituality. Part of the vastness of Shows' landscapes comes from her subjects; Shows uses earthly motifs, but chooses not to represent the fragile biology of nature - we see no plants or flowers or scurrying animals in her paintings. What we see are huge, ancient things.
These objects could be from any time and are undoubtedly older than we are. By focusing on ancient forms, Shows introduces an epic narrative. The landscapes are not frozen scenes but illustrations of a different time, the depiction of an alien landscape that humbles the viewer. This piece reminds us of how small and fleeting our lives are, and sparks a memory of some greater mystical story of which we are a part... We remember this place, but is it from a dream?
