Friends of the Desert Mountains presents Paula Crown’s bold new painting series, HEALING NATURE: The Aspen Maps. Consonant with a shared mission of wildlife conservation and sustainability, Crown’s work spotlights nature and its power to heal. “The secret is that you are part of the environment, not separate from it. When we care and honor nature we care for ourselves and for each other. That is a worthwhile pursuit.”
Layered and abstracted, Crown’s painting language is sensuous, evoking human forms and sinuous topographies. Viewers immerse in fantastical landscapes and vivid color adjacencies that encompass both physical and psychological spaces.
During the pandemic, Crown literally drew from nature for inspiration and grounding while working in Aspen and in Palm Springs. Navigation and way-finding continue as dominant themes in the work. The artist’s indexical marks are a means to understand space and the siting of oneself in relation to it. Digital and analog iterations enable Crown to create these visual experiences of fluid proportion and color play. The works reflect multiple viewpoints and the inherent changeability of all life and terrain.
