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This body of work that is being shown at SOAG is my attempt to share reflections on certain inspiring locations.  Upon experiencing these locations I realize a kind of awakening that makes me suddenly aware of new light, color, texture, and atmosphere. One such location is my neighbor’s pond, about 200 yards from my house.  It is hidden by a row of locust trees but once you wonder through that privacy, a new world develops, one that changes on a daily and seasonal basis. The walk to the pond travels through my own perennial garden that offers the same experience of awakening with a continual succession of blooms throughout the seasons. This particular painting might be the first painting I’ve ever done without having green dominate and that presented many challenges!

The images in Pax Anthropocene are inspired by the Ara Pacis, a monument to peace that was created by Caesar Augustus to designate the beginning of a new era of peace in the Roman Empire. Dedicated in 9 B.C.E., the Ara Pacis Augustae took the form of an open air altar that was decorated with deep reliefs carved into marble. The upper friezes depict a ritual procession showing Caesar Augustus and his family, government officials, and religious figures while the lower friezes are covered in stylized floral scrollwork that is usually interpreted as representing the abundance and fertility that peace would bring to the Empire.

The floral imagery, while highly stylized and fantastical, is also very detailed and numerous flora and fauna from the Mediterranean region have been identified by scholars.

Finding the birds, lizards, scorpions, and various other animals and insects is an entertaining occupation when visiting the monument, which is located in a building designed by Richard Meier along the Trastevere River in Rome, Italy. The nest of baby birds threatened by a snake is a particularly whimsical little vignette.

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Greek and Roman sculptors often modeled the vegetal decoration in their works after local species. Acanthus mollis is one of the most famous as the vegetation depicted in Corinthian columns.

To make the Ara Pacis inspired cyanotypes, I collected local specimens on walks or from florists or produce sellers. I coated the paper with the UV-sensitive cyanotype solution, made arrangements on the paper, then exposed them in sunlight. The changing quality of the natural light, the different watercolor papers available locally, and the dissolved minerals in Rome’s water create some of the tonal variations in the prints.

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In total I made seven unique Ara Pacis inspired compositions in Rome and these are vertical images in the Awakenings exhibition at State of the Art Gallery.

Why do I call the series Pax Anthropocene, you might ask? Well, the peace that Caesar Augustus proposed with the Ara Pacis monument is often called the Pax Augusta. Pax is “peace” in latin. The term “Anthropocene” is used by theorists to suggest the current age of human manipulation of the environment. Some place the starting date of the Anthropocene at the lowest point of carbon in the atmosphere, somewhere in the 1700s when colonization reduced human populations in the Americas but before the Industrial age.

The series title Pax Anthropocene is meant to invoke the idea of making peace with nature in our current era, which is in keeping with my recent work about climate change.

You can also see the entire series or my other work on my website.

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An April vacation several years ago ended with three days in Paris. Among the thousands of photos from that trip, one was bursting with the color of flowers and cried out to be transformed into a painting. The image was taken looking northeast, the Seine and a boulevard was on the right, but the area of interest was a row of flower shops and strollers enjoying the morning sun of spring. A few years after completing the painting I was viewing a digital copy of Woody Allen’s wonderful film, “Midnight in Paris”. The first time I saw it was in a movie theater, but it deserved a second and third look. The opening of the movie is a 1920’s jazz soundtrack with an accompanying series of very quick shots taken around Paris. As I re-watched the opening I thought I saw a familiar view. A screen capture and further inspection confirmed it was the exact corner I had painted and from the same point of view. I was shocked, amazed, and pleased. Further snooping on Street View, Google Earth, and other sources uncovered many other images of the same location in different seasons, times of day and night, and from different points of view. The results of my research is a poor substitute for actual travel, but the latter hasn’t been an option for a couple of years. If I ever make it back to that spot, it’ll almost feel like being home.