Artist Pam Rogers: Field Investigations
Alden’s Oak detail. Tannins, plant & soil pigments, ink, graphite & Nepalese paper, 26 x 20 in, 2013.
Arlington-based artist Pam Rogers is innately drawn to the natural world. The paintings in her new show: Field Investigations, on display at Ginter Gallery II, spring from that fascination. Rogers uses handmade plant and soil pigments, traditional inks, graphite, and water-based media. She collects materials for her paintings wherever she goes to use in her paintings which evoke what she calls botanical magic realism. In examining the relationship between people, plants and place, Rogers continually weaves together art and agriculture, myth and magic, and healing and hurting into an ongoing inquisitive whole.
Pam Rogers’ paintings using moss, and other natural elements as pigment.
In her artist’s statement, Rogers says, “Throughout my life I have found myself drawn to the natural world. I loved being in the garden with my grandfather, planting and harvesting. I would create cities from pine cones and bark and fill them with citizens carefully crafted from hollyhock plants. I kept plants in my room growing up — watering, trimming and watching for new growth. I learned lessons from plants: patience, empathy, and survival of the strong. This fascination with nature is the basis for my work and manifests itself in paintings, drawings, sculpture and installation. The work I create is an exploration into how individuals nurture and develop relationships, societies and ideas and then create carefully crafted identities based in these themes, all in the context of botanic imagery. Conceptually, I deconstruct relationships, events and personal moments and place them in a visual narrative evoking imagery from the natural world.”
The photos posted here are lovely but even more vibrant and remarkable in person. If you visit the Garden before September 20, be sure to step into Ginter Gallery II in the Kelly Education Center to view this spectacular show.
Details of Mr. Fords Birds Graphite, ink, aquarelle on handmade paper, 22 x 30 in, 2013.
Pam Rogers: Field Investigations
May 17 – Sept. 20, 2015
Ginter Gallery II, Kelly Education Center