ROCK STORIES
A Series by Denise Lorenz
We walked where ancients walked. Rushing steps of water masked the years. Jana Conger, artist and writer.
The Lake Huron waters of Thunder Bay beckoned for a few restful summer days. There I became enthralled with the thousands of well-worn beach pebbles. Every direction I gazed offered a new array of size, color, pattern and aggregate. The visual pleasure of "Pudding Stones","Petoskey Stones", beach glass and more, prompted the search for that perfect stone or that elegant well-crafted photo.
The expressions in drawing evolved from staged events on the water's edge. The rock assortments, the lighting, the gentle ripples of water teasing the shore- these were arrested in photographs and later manipulated on the computer. It was a meditation to allow the stones to "speak" through slowly developed layers of ink and colored pencil.
I invite the viewer to examine the minute textures and patterns of Rock Stories. There is an energy locked in the rocks- a memory that reverberates from times long past and unknown distant shores.
THE TIMELESS MEXICO SERIES
A Series by Denise Lorenz
The Timeless Mexico series is one I have pursued for several years. It stems from two peaceful summers of teaching Drawing and the Art History of Mexico for Sam Houston State University. This experience unfolded in the large colonial city of Puebla, in the state of Puebla, Mexico.
The series addresses the sense of time standing still during the cool, slow- moving weeks in Puebla. The history of the region, both ancient and post conquest permeated day to day life. City dwellers lived their history in their pride of well-kept monuments, the continuation of traditional crafts, and in the life embracing values of their slower pace.
After photographing and sketching much, it became the objects of the culture that expressed the timeless quality to me. The architecture and artifacts persisted in twenty-first century life in an inexorable, almost static march from the past. I found I could not see enough of surrounding ancient cities such as Teotihuacan and Cholula.
The ancient artifacts in stone carvings of Quetzalcoatl and Coatlique, the massive exposed pyramids suggesting many more hidden under the regular hillocks dotting the terrain, the potsherds revealing mundane past days, all conjured up long-lost quixotic cultures. These fed my imagery.
The juxtapositions of massive cathedral portals in baroque detail with beckoning, streamlined contemporary arches were at once perfectly normal and strangely incongruous. These also offered illusive, immovable images.
My longing to repeat this respite from hurried existence causes me to continue these drawings until new travels prompt new artistic wanderings. The slow process of building up the transparent color layers of the Timeless Mexico series recreates the gradually unfolding moments of the beautiful place and time I experienced. Maybe these isolated views will offer a brief sense of peacefulness and escape to another.
