Show Description:

This show brings together four artists exploring landscape, light, and perspective through varied materials and viewpoints. From aerial studies of the rural Spokane region to expansive skies shaped by atmosphere and weather, the work invites viewers to slow down and look closely at land, sky, and the subtle shifts that shape how we experience place.

Using approaches that range from drone-informed drawing and traditional painting to earth pigments and reused materials, these artists reflect on how we see and relate to our environment in the present moment. Twilight scenes reveal quiet illumination in darkness, skies stretch the sense of scale and possibility, and works made from what is already at hand speak to resilience, sufficiency, and care for the land, and the people who inhabit it.

Rooted in both local and far-reaching landscapes, this exhibition considers how changing perspective whether from above, at the edge of enough, or in the search for light can open space for reflection, connection, and imagination.

 ARTIST STATEMENTS:

BEVIE LABRIE: 

I make this work through the lens "What I have is enough." My creations are rooted in mountain landscapes and the communities that live within them. I work with what is at hand: earth pigments, discarded or forgotten objects, natural debris, intuition, and the quiet, often unseen gestures of the land itself.

Time spent in the mountains moves through my body—their resilience settling into bone and breath—until it travels out through my hands and becomes form, story, and shared meaning. This body of work carries the spirit and endurance of mountain ranges from the North Cascades to the Himalayas to desert mountain scapes, and reflects the humility, resourcefulness, and deep interconnection I have learned from the people who live among them.

This is both a creative and spiritual practice—an effort to live and create in rhythm with place and people, guided by observation, patience, and transformation. I explore how art can hold memory and strengthen communal care.

As part of this exhibition, I invite you to bring a small found object—something discarded, natural, or personal—that you are ready to release. These offerings will be woven into a final piece, completing the work through collective presence and participation.

LAURIE CARLSON:

Art does bring us joy, whether we have a hands-on experience making it, or spend time viewing and letting it spark interconnections within our brain which make us feel good, both mentally and physically. For me, being surrounded by my paintings has been comforting. Every time I moved houses, I felt in flux and unsettled until I put those familiar favorites on my walls. I find myself looking at a painting like it's an old friend--I recognize it immediately and my brain responds. In fact, I realize I'm spending a lot of time just sitting and gazing at paintings on my wall. It's been a game-changer for me--an anxious, worry-wart personality--who would likely be totally frustrated with today's world that surrounds us. But I can pick up my journal, my sketchbook, or my paints and drop into that now-comfortable state of creating something. Or, I can just relax with an iced drink and imagine I'm soaring over a meadow or lake, or retrieving a long-ago memory of a happier day on a picnic or hike. Art can do that. 

HEATHERANN WOODS:

The brain is actually what “sees”, not the eye. Physiology, past experience, personal stories and intention all contribute to perception and interpretation. My incurable curiosity,background in atmospheric science and drive to understand the human experience of processing visual information, interacting with our environment and engaging with one another fuels my exploration in oil paint. By chasing the skies, capturing fleeting moments of unique natural light with my camera and recreating those images in oil paint, I pursue the conversation of perception, challenge accepted color and design theory and attempt to provide a visual field that presents the illusion of space. I feel the intoxicating complexity of neutrals in the world around us is often overlooked even though that is precisely what creates our reality. While I firmly believe art is an important vehicle through which sociopolitical commentary or personal storytelling can be voiced, I strive to create pieces that  invite the viewer to pause, breathe the air depicted and wash oneself in the sensory bath of natural memory. While I may be misunderstood as a realist landscape painter, I see myself as an abstract atmospheric painter. My hope is that as you explore with me and engage with fellow viewers, you expand your understanding of this unique individual perception within a shared experience.