Artist’s Statement

Emily Church’s work, both visual and written, pulls from her quotidian existence as a mother, her ongoing grappling with the natural world, and the specific language of painting. Her paintings transform simple landscape events such as reflections on bodies of water, a sunset, a moonrise, a storm, into iconic mystical space. They reference history, the skies of Constable and Turner, the land of O’Keeffe and Hartley, yet they persist as contemporary in form and intensity of color. Over the past five years, the rainbow as an event after a storm, as a halo around the full moon, and as the phenomena of sun dog that passes through cirrus clouds, has become a significant recurring symbol. It feels like either a beacon of hope or a harbinger of things to come. These paintings bear witness to the passing seasons, ephemeral light, the weather as it mercilessly engulfs, the rainbow as it flashes briefly across the sky, begging to be noticed and gone in an instant.

Source: Artist's website http://www.emilychurchart.com/about.html