Rolling blue waves and airy forest layers ebb along the walls of Chicago Art Source Gallery as the space reveals its new duo exhibition,
Komorebi and
Everything Is Fluid. The show features two bodies of work by Jane Guthridge and Ruth Hamill, who both draw inspiration from nature.
Ruth Hamill,
Accepting. (courtesy of artist)
Ruth Hamill's
Everything Is Fluid draws from the movement of water. The series is made up of bubbly watercolor patterns and wavy blue paintings. Hamill's works mingle in mediums of ink, gauche, watercolor, and swirls of encaustic paint (pigments mixed with hot wax, resulting in a transcendent layer-y shine). Altogether,
Everything Is Fluid expresses the constant state of flux that flows through life. Composed in beautiful undulating moments, the series is about awknowledging and embracing this constant state of change, living life wholeheartedly through its tides.
Jane Guthridge,
The Space Between triptych 14. (courtesy of artist)
Komorebi, the Japanese word for "light through trees," is a series by
Jane Guthridge, inspired by sun casted through the shade of forests. Her work is composed of cutouts of various types of paper and colored prints (including inkjet and, like Hamill, encaustic), soothingly juxtaposed through a balance of opaque and transparent color layers. The series also contains table-sized sculptural pieces whose abstract forms play off of positive and negative space. Guthridge's work is not only about the beauty of the external visual, but the internal harmony it mirrors—warm to cool, dark to light, blues and greens dappling from air into mind. When you close your eyes, the feelings remain—like watching sunlight dance through the lids of your eyes as you slip into daydreams.
The co-habitation of
Komorebi and
Everything Is Fluid makes a dynamic and harmonious pairing. Both inspired by moments drawn from natural elements, the works elicit a sense of flow and visceral harmony. Walking through the gallery space is like walking through the woods down to the shoreline of the beach, taking in the splash of a wave or the kiss of a shadow with each passing moment.
Komorebi and
Everything Is Fluid will be on show at
Chicago Art Source Gallery (1871 N Clybourn Ave, just above the Artists Frame Service shop) until June 17th. The gallery is open 10am-6pm Monday-Friday and 10am-5pm Saturday. Entry is free.
