Michele Johnsen

32 North Main Street, Rochester, NH 03867
July 6, 2019 - August 30, 2019

“I’ve considered myself a landscape painter for more than a decade, but my Master’s work has prompted me to inquire into precisely where my work fits into the landscape tradition and why I choose this particular motif as my primary focus. 

The description of intimate spaces and sublime vistas are my response to the way the landscape reflects the light and creates patterns on the forms of natural surfaces. Through the use of graduated hues, abstracted mark-making and highly saturated color I am able to articulate a range of emotional responses that speak to aesthetic rationales, and to psychological and spiritual concerns, allowing access into the magic of those special places.

While producing my work, I find myself feeling nostalgic for childhood memories that revolved around sweet spots in the environment. In order to have a greater engagement with these ideas, I invited friends and neighbors to take me to the places that resonate most deeply with them.   Along with the pure attachment to aesthetic qualities, I reflect on how, as an artist, my work engages with events that cause disruption through the hand of man and nature.  Does the work provide documentation that articulates my vision of the landscape that causes joyful moments? Ultimately, this passion to describe these moments  appears to be a long and never-ending journey that brings attention to both beauty and responsibility.”

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