Lorna Nakell
&
Marietta Patricia Leis

September 29 - November 20, 2009

Lorna Nakell

"I am a project based artist. I am mainly focused on building collections of paintings centered on a theme or event."

"This current exhibition at Grants Pass Museum of Art was created as a loose-leaf book. The lines of text superimposed on the pages of the book are from a single poem I wrote titled, Camping alongside a River. Viewed in chronological order, the pages depict an imagined experience camping by a river. Memories of playing in the Rogue River along with various creeks in Southern Oregon were accessed to inspire the imagery. Each page is a diptych juxtaposing the internal and external landscape of the human body with the landscapes of nature; suggesting similarities in pattern and form, and implying a relationship between the two."

More information on Lorna Nakell's work may be seen on her website: http://www.lornanakell.com/

Marietta Patricia Leis

My oil paintings are soaked in blue. This blue immersion began in 2001 when I was an Artist in Residence at Crater Lake, Oregon-the deepest and bluest lake in the US. I realized then how thoroughly color, as an optical experience, filters through cultural values and shapes the way we see the world.

These paintings can exclaim "blue" one painting at a time, but more often the blue reverberates two, four, six or more paintings at a time. The wood formats on which they are painted typically angle and recede to the wall while their painted surfaces appear to float in front of the wall. There is a paradox between the sharp edgedness of the paintings and their gentle hovering.

More information on Marietta Leis's work may be seen on her website: http://www.MariettaLeis.com/