KATHRYN LIPKE VIGESAA

The land itself is a central catalyst for much of my artwork. The earth’s surface or what is the face of the land asserts an ever present impact on our daily lives. A sense of place, the vastness of a landscape and the startling details which when examined closely speak to the work. Through the process of making art I take time to confront nature, to research its specific history and attempt to establish an identity of a place and a sense of its spirit.

Much of my recent work has been influenced by living and working in rural Vermont. Each day I hike or snow shoe in the meadow, along the river or in the surrounding woods. I listen to the sounds of nature, see the details of the plants and landscape from close up – all of this has affected the way in which I think about and understand my environment. I see the cycles of nature throughout the seasons – making me more fully understand the larger system – that includes mankind his/her memory and sense of place. To perceive nature and translate it into an aesthetic statement is to try to get inside the processes of nature then work out from that point – not to just present a static view of nature. It is to respond to nature.

I notice the traces of natures activity on the surface of the earth, how the tree branches are reflected in water and water again makes traces as it freezes or causes patterns in the mud. Stones are shaped by the flow of water and detached from the surrounding hills and mountains becoming dead elements suspended in time. It is being river that is the true sculptor of stone.

What is real is what we make of what exists – connections, perceptions of similarities, memory and recognition. All play into the imagination, all of which we draw on to realize imagistic and sensorial fragments that play on relationships between nature and the artwork.