about the artist

"I grew up in the farmlands of central Illinois where the rich black earth, flat ribboned fields, expansive skies, and limitless horizon informed my sense of space, perspective and beauty. Unobstructed sight lines elongate the distance between things, exaggerating the loneliness and isolation of rural living. To the casual eye, the landscape can appear vacant, but the patient observer sees telescoping views of miles of crops, farmhouses, and silos crowded into a single frame.

The allure of this vast landscape captures me, but there is more of this place that resides in my soul. I am haunted by the remnants of another time. Once thriving family farms degenerate into crumbling barns and rusting equipment abandoned in dusty fields. I ponder the mystery of their faded existence as they beckon me back to their time of vitality and fresh beauty.

Deeper still, childhood images cling to my heart's memory: the big white house, a swing hanging from an ancient tree, peeling paint on the cellar door, summer hollyhocks, and the scent of dill in Grandma's garden. Just beyond the clothesline, the yard melts into black soil rising up to brilliant green rows. Seasons transform the green to gold stalks, finally succumbing to the cold plow.

I seek to translate the tension between the beauty of the central Illinois landscape and its deep sense of loneliness, linking the present with the past, the rhythms of death and new life, through the language of color, space and texture. I work with acrylic paint and oil stick, allowing the elements of the painting to emerge organically. I build up layers of color, allowing the brightest color to illuminate the work from within.

Although the physical location is relevant to me, it is the emotional space that primarily inhabits the work - -the sense of a place, rather than a detailed or recognizable depiction. Elements of rural landscapes and agricultural towns appear to create emotional impressions of a place or a moment in time - soul memories."

- danielle crilly