This is Not Pretty, A Response to Climate Change by Artist Joyce Greenfield

[Jen Payne]

 

The new City Gallery exhibit THIS IS NOT PRETTY represents artists Joyce Greenfield’s response to climate change, and was inspired by Octavia Butler’s book the Parable of the Sower. Her work will be on view from June 2 - June 25, with an Opening Reception on Saturday, June 3 from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m., and the artist will be in the gallery on Sunday, June 4 and Sunday, June 11.

 

Greenfield found her muse in Butler, explaining: “I was inspired by her verbal descriptions and suggested atmosphere, color, and light in a potential new world. There is beauty and damage, fear and violence, potential and HOPE.”

 

For THIS IS NOT PRETTY, Greenfield has chosen plants to represent the possibilities expressed by Butler, but light has always been the focus of her work. “My most successful paintings have been based on New England settings where I found the light atmosphere to be unusual or exceptional in some way.” Her subjects have included the power of the Atlantic Ocean and how its environment can change the light, or shapes that appeal and act as a foil for capturing light and changing it.”

 

To create her vision of this potential new world, Greenfield uses a combination of new technology and old school painting techniques. “The preliminary work was developed on my iPad with the Procreate app. Those initial images provide me with a direction to create the paintings, which are done in oil on canvas or panels.”

 

The exhibit is free and open to the public, and will be on view June 2 - June 25, 2023. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12pm - 4 pm, or by appointment. For further information please contact City Gallery, [e-mail], www.city-gallery.org.