Sunflower Still Life
Earthwork
"Early on the mandate was visual and the canvas and the medium were the imperative. 'Sunflower Still Life' was a minimalist attempt at controlling the elements. Van Gogh's varied Sunflower paintings informed the piece, but the earthwork image was more related to the quilts of my immediate history and a recognition of the graphic nature of the landscape defined by the utility of generations of my family's agriculture history. Aesthetics were important to my father and his father when it came to farming. I didn't recognize this until my late twenties. Human consciousness thrives on beauty and diminishes in its void.
Outside of those who work the land, photographers began to reveal subtleties in earthworks created. It was through the insights of others that I began to understand the lessons of collaboration and synergy in art and life. I had also distanced myself from the rural people that I came to regard as provincial in the ten years after the university art environment. Returning to the land through the art process reintroduced me to the good nature and common sense of those deeply connected to the land
The sunflowers from 'Sunflower Still Life' earthwork became part of a most interesting Kansas evening. As the massive heads reached full bloom, ten of us gathered on the field with machetes to hone the graphic petals. With the truck loaded with sunflower heads, it was agreed to deliver them to that evening's River City Reunion gathering of William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and others. An art happening ensued with hundreds of flowers resting on windshields along Lawrence's streets and with a triumphant Burroughs ending the evening with a clutch of them over his head in salute to the beauty of Kansas."
This is a 9 in. x 12 in. image of the Sunflower Still Life earthwork near Lawrence, Kansas. It is on an 11 in. x 14 in. 230 gsm weight vibrant matte paper with the title of the work and artist name below the image. This print will come with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
This is a first limited edition.
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