“When Mother Nature Cries”
Our modern world does not require physical interaction with the wild and its creatures. As city walls form around us, there is a loss of connection to the natural world and ultimately to ourselves as human beings. In my current body of work, both the primitive and the modern world are at battle. I am visually working to express these feelings through both the connection and disconnection to creation. In my work you may see: white with worn, plastic with rust, and domesticated gone feral. I am challenging the viewer to journey beyond their concrete walls and connect to something greater than themselves. -Rachel Gardner
“Throughout history human beings and animals in the wild have coexisted for various reasons and in various ways. For contemporary urban dwellers our relationship with the wilderness has diminished. Animals of the wild are often hunted, more often for sport rather than for subsistence. Rachel Gardner has devoted her art to the exploration of wild nature and our relationship with the birds and beasts of the deserts and forests. She loves deep nature, old growth forests and the wild animals that live in that environment disconnected from the urban community. Her art is a reminder that it is still possible to have a creative connection with animals of the wild, and those who breach the edges of our own human spaces.” -Jim Edwards