Sunday, May 15, 2011

Grace Grothaus and the Way it is.....

Grace works with landscape but it is not a romanticized landscape. It is landscape as she feels it is with the hand of man superimposed over the original hand of nature.

We met her at her Tulsa studio in the Liggett Studios. Her work truly has to be seen in person to be appreciated with multiple layers of drawing, paintings and cut papers and other found objects and grounds. They often contain lights some of which contain microprocessors that only light when the viewer approaches the work. 



Grace is fun, sincere, articulate and innovative. I was so impressed by the work in-person and close-up.


She goes up in planes on aerial adventures where she takes many reference photographs that inspire her works influenced by views of the Oklahoma landscape from above, from land formations to man-made structures. In Grace's hands an oil containment vessel becomes part of a work of questioning and even beauty. In one piece when you look close up you realize she has used round leaves to represent the oil drums. Her work is still traveling as part of Art 365, a grant and series of shows awarded to five Oklahoma artists.





We watch Grace work meticulously on one of her new pieces in progress. Her detailed technique is very meditative for her much as I experience when I am doing my work altho the results and materials are so different. I gained an even greater respect for her work after this studio visit and interview.










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