nadia
In 1935 Charles Finney published The CIrcus of Dr Lao- Finney, lived in Tucson and was a journalist for the AZ Daily Star. His book was set in the fictional town of Abalone Az- where a strange circus comes to visit and irreparably alters the lives of the townspeople. A friend and fan of Flam Chen- Carl Noggle gifted me with an original copy and told me "it reminded him of us"
After reading the book it was clear that the ideas would not lend themselves easily to live theater- but i was inspired to draw illustrations from it.
When DADA approached Athena and I with the idea of a joint show- I began rough sketches for paintings from these illustrations. The sketches evolved into a "Birth of Circus" type theme that followed the narrative of the Medieval Christian "virgin birth" . Annunciation, Gestation and Birth. Each one of my sketches had a round "baby space" as a predominant feature and a nice way to combine our work would be for Athena to place her paintings within these spaces
Athenas work tends to be small-scale and very meticulous and my work larger and sloppier- It seemed like a nice fit-
The idea for Immaculate Evolution came from our interests in the process of birth as "creation and manifestation" Athena was concerned with How new life evolves- the small quirks and changes that manifest themselves as new creatures and I was concerned how the "spark" of creation evolves into new ideas and manifests as works of art. These paintings are our mother/ daughter ruminations on evolution, creation and the "spark" that generates new life.
athena
I am constantly amazed by the incredible intricacy and the delicate perfection of nature’s work. Nature has had millennia to create and fine-tune her masterpieces. In my paintings I try to capture the vibrancy and life of the subject within the limits of two dimensions. The pieces that I consider successful are those in which the creatures take on a life of their own. I would not presume to say that I improve on the beauty of the natural world but I love being able to create variations on nature’s themes.
My process involves the layering of mediums on paper: Pencil, watercolor, gesso, acrylic gloss, permanent marker and gold leaf. With each layer the painted creature evolves. The process is rather unforgiving- if mistakes are made it can be difficult to correct them. I often feel that if a subject does not come easily it is because it is not ready to exist. As with any evolutionary process it sometimes takes a few tries to get it right.
With my jewelry I can’t help but take advantage of nature’s artistic skill; the pearl and the peacock feather, silver, amber and stone. Again- I do not aim to improve on their beauty but only to do them justice.
Special thanks must be given to the birds and the oysters for their exquisite work and sacrifice.
athena hagen krause