Allison Stewart
Statement
I make paintings that address the beauty and vulnerability of our natural world, especially in the coastal wetlands of southern Louisiana, where we are losing land at an alarming rate. Both natural and manmade actions have contributed to this land loss and we are now at an inflection point that will alter the trajectory of our future.
I’m interested in the overlooked and unseen elements of this landscape. I work on the ground, in the round, layering the canvas with maps and notes to myself from other areas of my life; I use graphite, charcoal, inks, gesso, pigments and glazes, until a dialogue begins and images emerge from the chaos. Sometimes the images float in ambiguous fields of color, other times they are grounded in landscape. It is the interior landscape of color and feeling rather than observation and representation.
As an artist I value the power of art that resonates, that asks questions, that is open to interpretation and that speaks to its own time, yet has the power to be timeless.
