Warmest Year on Record

This year has made a mark. 2016 was the warmest year since that kind of data has been recorded. In fact 16 of the 17 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. I relocated 4 times in this warmest year. Our socio-political climate has not only swung in an dispiriting direction, it places our lives and longevity as a species in increasing jeopardy. On the other hand, in the last year there have been so many new and amazing discoveries about stars, planets, planetoids, moons and asteroids beyond our terra firma. And at the same time our scientific institutions are under attack. It’s been a year of extremes and contradictions.

Over the last several months I have made scores of small ink drawings that began as supplements to my paintings but have become a distinct body of work. These drawings are improvisational and exploratory, often the subject presents itself through the process of drawing. Gestures, story-lines or patterns emerge expanding sometimes from an initial mark or shape, other times from text. While there is no singular narrative in the installation there are visual and thematic organizing logic. The read of a particular work might shift depending the arrangement or composition. Individually some works are optimistic while others seem dystopic, or even cynical. These drawings were made in subjective creative states that ranged from explorative to meditative to reactionary. Themes relating to climate science, political threat, philosophy, land, planetary research, power, abstraction and inspiration arise in this drawing series.

My interest and research into science often finds adaptation in my paintings and drawings. The subject matter and titles of several of these works relate to NASA missions and their findings. Many planets and moons in our solar system have been named after figures in greek mythology, I have extended this theme to names and ideas in my work that relate both to space and represent motifs present in classical mythology: creation and destruction; fates; betrayal; attraction; hubris.

All works ink on paper 2016, 2017 Installed at Grunwald Gallery, Bloomington, IN

AMANDA LECHNER

AMANDA LECHNER