Spring shifts us from dormancy towards growth, from winter to warmth, and from long nights to longer days. Seasonal shifts bring the opportunity to reflect on the rhythm of change in our own lives.
The transformations in this exhibit are figurative and literal. They imagine the concepts of growing up, growing old or even a goat becoming one with a cliff as in Tim Cherry’s bronze sculpture. Photographer Mike Mergen’s images of polling places look at first glance like unremarkable locations until you reconsider them as places of profound civic contracts and spaces where new administrations are chosen and new directions determined. Virginia Stroud’s ledger painting not only represents a change in painting materials but also depicts historic change in Quanah Parker’s surrender to Colonel Mackenzie in 1875. David Crismon’s painting looks like a style of dress and portraiture from the 17th century, but it is a contemporary painting that references technological glitches and gestures of digital scanning or printing errors.
As you consider the transformations in this exhibit you could also consider how the only constant in life is change. Whether the season, the election cycle, technology or relationships, everything is temporary.
