By Renee McGinnis
reneemcginnis.com
I paint luxurious biosystems that frame frozen landscapes. I use oil paint, laboriously glazing some surface areas and letting vibrato brush strokes remain in others. Overpainting on silver and gold leaf butterflies and birds flash iridescent amid the flora.
The sexual organs of the flowers are transformed into jewels. Some of the stamens brandish blue balls at their base. These represent unfulfilled desire and relentless yearning, human instincts that impact the aesthetic beauty and fragility of nature. Under turbulent skies are planes, trains, and ships – these emblems of Western progress, fueled by the ancient compression of flora – lie frozen in the barren, inhospitable future they are impacting.
My work attempts to distill all I know of our formidable species and the natural systems that sustain us down to a sorrowful beauty, speaking visually about humanity’s triumphs and tragedies and how these conditions continually co-exist.
I hope to elicit feelings of awe in the face of human ingenuity while simultaneously hinting at themes of environmental reflection. There’s a poetic balance struck between the achievements of humanity and the omnipresent force and beauty of nature.
