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Sally Chandler / Bibliography: click here to return to articles Wilson, Wade, "Take a graphic walk in environmental
wonderland" Take a Graphic Walk in Environmental Wonderland: If you're travelling through the Austin area this summer, stop in and see Texas artist Sally Chandler’s recent works, from her series Nature Symbolized in Paintings, at Lyons Matrix Gallery. Chandler, formerly of Austin, then Houston, now a resident of Santa Fe, is one of a group of artists committed to art as a mirror of culture and a catalyst for thought and action. Chandler’s paintings reflect an acute consciousness of the delicate nature of the environment. Posing familiar natural elements such as shells or fish with sometimes decaying environmental effects, she forces us to see the temporal nature of her subject matter, as society continues to wear on the planet. In “Life Force Cycle,” she examines the natural processes of decay and the transformation of living matter, such as leaves, bones or wood, into compost. Chandler’s images, layered one upon another, move their audience not only with their grand scale —the paintings "are 8-feet square in two panels" — but also with their sensitive and sometimes alarmingly accurate detail. What at first might appear as a beautiful and healthy portrait of a microcosm or ecosystem, may, in fact, be a portrait of organic life on the brink of deterioration. The paintings, however, are far from repelling. Chandler’s lively, refreshing style pulls you in as you discover the secrets hidden beneath a painting’s surfaces. The beauty in her examinations of familiar living elements causes us to examine their fragility and treasure their presence. For example, in Fertile Soil, Chandler focuses on a mass of shells, detailing the intricacies of their colorful and complex designs while layering her subject matter in a way that moves toward the abstract. She knowingly leads you into her environmental wonderland in an effort to make you clearly understand what is at stake in our world. |
