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Jennifer Williams
August 9 - September 9, 2008
More About the Artist:
Jennifer Williams
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For Immediate Release:
What the River Reveals
Through paint and page, art and science merge
Layers of earth and rock…Layers of observation and meaning…Layers of time…Layers of paint. All these elements come
together in What the River Reveals, a combined art exhibition and book release at RiverSea Gallery in Astoria.
Jennifer Williams, an environmental landscape painter from southwest Washington, has teamed up with Oregon author,
Valerie Rapp in an exhibition that takes a probing look into the state of riparian environments through a fusion
of art, science and friendship.
Williams will show a series of her mixed-media paintings, which have been inspired by Rapp's writings on
eco-systems. Rapp will release her latest book, which shares its title with that of the show: What the River
Reveals. The book explores the tremendous beauty and mystery of Northwest rivers, and offers hope for their
future.
The exhibition will open on Saturday, August 9th with a reception from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Both the artist and
the author will be on hand to discuss their work, refreshments will be served and Portland keyboardist Steve
Cleveland will perform. The show will hang in its entirety through September 9th, and books will continue to
be available.
Although Williams is a painter and Rapp a science writer, they found in each other a common passion
for the natural world that both deepened and enhanced their understanding of it.
Jennifer Williams came of age in the Cascade foothills, where she witnessed the ever-intensifying impact
of human development on the world around her. She saw forested hillsides leveled of trees. She watched as
salmon runs shrank or disappeared altogether. Since receiving her art degree from Portland State University
in 1996, she has explored environmental issues, focusing on the contrasts that occur when nature is viewed
as society's resource.
These days, Williams finds the power of nature is her greatest influence, and the impact of human pressures
is her greatest concern. She focuses that concern into creating large-scale, mixed-media paintings that evoke
the stunning atmosphere and timelessness of the places she is so passionate about, while revealing their
vulnerability and devastation.
Williams' paintings emerge through a process of sheer, acrylic washes layered over a collaged base
consisting of maps and text about her subject. From afar, the movement and images are dynamic, exhibiting
both delicacy and depth. Up close, the surface speaks to the viewer in its own way, revealing bits of
texts and maps that invite a deeper exploration of meaning.
This unique process, combined with environmental themes, has led to several important regional commissions.
Williams' work is in the permanent collections of the City of Vancouver Water Resources Education Center,
Kaiser Permanente, and Skamania Lodge. Her paintings have been featured in individual and group shows in
Northwest galleries.
Valerie Rapp is a science writer living in McKenzie Bridge, Oregon who has often tackled the same
topics that Williams has explored in her art. For the last thirty years she has written about how
people connect to nature, how nature works, and how human society can survive in the twenty-first
century. She has three published books, plus scientific publications and magazine articles. In her
former job as a science writer for the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, she
worked with many leading forest and watershed scientists. Her book, Life in a River, was a finalist
for the 2003 Oregon Book Award in Children's Literature. She also won a 1996 Oregon Literary Fellowship
in Nonfiction from Literary Arts, Inc. What the River Reveals is her first self-published book, and is
also the first book she has released at an art gallery, rather than in more academic surroundings.
The two met when Rapp commissioned a painting from Williams, an artist whose work she had long admired.
"I felt Jennifer's paintings expressed what I couldn't put into words," Rapp says. Rapp was especially
intrigued by the layers of text and maps that have always been an integral part of Jennifer's mixed-media
paintings. She found that the interplay of words, textures, and images evoked a timeless and haunting
sentiment.
"Jennifer's paintings expressed the beauty, mystery, and pain of wild salmon and rivers in a way
that moved me deeply," notes Rapp.
Rapp gave Williams one of her books and the painter felt a familiar resonance in Rapp's writings.
Almost immediately, Williams approached Rapp with the idea for a collaborative project. She didn't
know exactly what, but she knew the energy was there for something really special.
"Valerie's words say what I can't explain through my paintings," Williams remarks.
Williams visited Rapp at her home along the McKenzie River. The two traversed the landscape, walked
the forest, and discussed each other's work and northwest upbringings. "She talks about the whole
watershed, but when she talks about it she takes into account all the people living in that watershed
and their feelings," says Williams, discussing Rapp's writing. "It's never about, 'It's the loggers
fault,' or 'people shouldn't live there,' she just makes statements, and lets the readers decide from
there." As two voices have become one, Williams and Rapp have created a complimentary vision from the
unlikely opposites of art and science.
Through winter and spring, Williams painted hard, and Rapp wrote just as fast. The conversations
continued, and a friendship developed. Rapp shared what she knew about the science of river
ecology and watershed restoration. Williams shared images, insights, and intuitive impressions
of rivers, salmon, and watersheds, and she drew inspiration from Rapp's manuscript in progress.
As the dialogue grew, the process also evolved. Williams literally put Rapp's words into her
paintings, using recycled draft pages and notes from the book, along with maps as the underlying
body of collage from which many of her images emerged.
"I wanted her words to become my images. I realized we were stronger together," says Williams.
Many of the titles of Williams' paintings are even interchangeable with chapter titles and themes
in the Rapp's book.
In her painting, "A Deep Thirst," Williams' characteristic layers and rough, worked surfaces reveal
the story of a landscape ravaged, but working to heal itself with networks of roots and rivulets.
Her paintings often bring a level of sculpture to the two-dimensional plane.
These profound works, and Rapp's timely words, remind us that if one really wants to understand the
rivers, or the Earth, or the natural environment, one must continually peel back the layers.
"What the River Reveals tells the story of how we've changed our Pacific Northwest rivers and what we've
lost, and also the story of how we can help them heal," says Rapp. "Ultimately, rivers reveal the human
heart."
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