A new show opens on Thursday, March 12, 2015 at Compass Gallery, located at the Willamette Heritage Center. The show, Eco Icon: Art About Environmentalism, opens with a reception on Thursday, 5-7 pm. From 5:30-6:15 pm there will be a panel discussion, Environmentalism Then & Now.
I was invited to submit a painting to this juried group show and I chose Aldo Leopold as my Eco Icon.
All entries had to be 10×10 inches, so I chose a board that I had already applied plaster and some initial layers of oil and cold wax. I did some research on Aldo Leopold and pulled out his book, A Sand County Almanac.
Here is what I wrote to accompany my submission:
Aldo Leopold is known as a fierce environmentalist and one of the foremost conservationists of our century, with a deep love and respect for the land. I have created an abstraction representing the restoration of natural habitats and man’s relationship to the land.
10×10 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax
The show is hanging and it is beautiful.
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
Aldo Leopold