Save the Date: Hi-Fructose Co-Founder Annie Owens shows A Place Worth Knowing at La Luz de Jesus Gallery
Hi-Fructose co-founder Annie Owens A Place Worth Knowing opens up tonight at La Luz de Jesus Gallery.
Her watercolors have a melodramatic, film-noir edge; her subjects exist in a remote world.
As one of my favorite authors Algernon Blackwood put it, “No place worth knowing yields itself at sight, and those the least inviting on first view may leave the most haunting pictures upon the walls of memory.”
Here, Blackwood refers to the dark and seemingly unknowable wilderness. Many of his writings involving the backcountry drew metaphoric parallels to humans, personifying the worst and best of the human condition with the howling of the wind or the ominous sound of tricking water. He would describe the properties of the wild as if he were talking about a living-breathing organism.
Taking my queues from Blackwood’s quote, “A Place Worth Knowing” allegorically speaks to our habit as humans of turning away from the seemingly unknowable in ourselves and in others. Preferring to view the strange and unusual from a safe distance in much the same way mysterious and unexplored mountain ranges appear daunting and unreachable – opting to observe rather than to interact.
Annie Owens – Encroachment – Watercolor on 100% cotton paper, 25×31″,
A willingness to explore the unknown with respect and an open heart yields an environment that is welcoming and soul soothing, if you leave your proverbial baggage at the trailhead from the start. If not, all that you bring with you distorts and multiplies as the miles wear on and the backcountry becomes host to your worst demons and ghosts. For me the wilderness is transformative, both in good ways and bad but always useful. Following a downward decline into a depression in 2016, I’ve found the best side myself in the backcountry, but I have also run into the most pitifully ugly side of who I am as well.
Annie Owens – When The Moon Is Full (Eat Bubbles) – Watercolor on 100% cotton paper, 15×15″
The figures in my work are an amalgamation of all the women and girls I’ve known, for better or worse, molded into a generic form in generic dresses that I sometimes use to embody a thought, a feeling or attitude. For example, the figure in “Encroachment II”, who dwarfs her surroundings, represents the rather arrogant human imprint on rural landscapes. While the figure in “Cordova” who is caught mid-turn presumably to move away from the viewer into the distance portrays either hesitation or a sense of finality. I painted this after a visit to my home state of Alabama with a random side trip to the small town of Cordova that to my knowledge has no connection to my family. I think I was looking for hiking trails. The little town just stuck with me.
Annie Owens – Encroachment II – Watercolor on 100% cotton paper, 15×23″
Wormwood is self-explanatory for the most part. A biblical reference to the apocalypse where the figure is the 3rd angel just before blowing her trumpet, signaling the coming of the wormwood star that falls to earth poisoning the earth’s lakes and rivers. Atypical of what I normally choose to do with her art, this is an obvious environmental statement and given the political climate and literal climate change, I think it’s timely. – Annie Owens
Full preview at this link
Annie Owens
showing with Lizz Lopez, Karen Hydendahl, Edith Waddell, Daria Theodora
August 4 – 28, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, August 4th, 8-11 PM
at La Luz de Jesus Gallery
Exhibition:
Annie Owens – A Place Worth Knowing
showing with Lizz Lopez, Karen Hydendahl, Edith Waddell, Daria Theodora
August 4 – 28, 2017
Opening Reception:
Friday, August 4th, 8-11 PM
Address:
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90027