Joy Munt: Rain, Steam and Speed

×

Expand

Joy Munt, "Sixteen Tons and What do You Get," 2016

acrylic on panel, 48" x 48"

Exhibition Opening Friday January 20th 7:00- 9:00 p.m. 

Artist Talk Saturday January 21st ~ 1:00p.m.

I am transfixed by a beautiful and deteriorating world of industry juxtaposed amongst the prairies, trees, rivers and coasts. The manufactured world, like the landscape, can be full of nostalgia and symmetry. I think of the words of Simon Sharma’s as he describes the painter JMW Turners quest to represent the power of industry amongst the landscape “instinctively Turner wanted to see if the belching smoke and a cantering train would generate that kind of beauty, what he does is the industrial sublime.”

The industrial sublime is all around us. We have grown up around the trains, shipping containers and grain elevators. I choose to paint the elements of industry side by side with natural landscape to create a dialogue. Is it a celebration of industry, recognition of its limitations or simply nostalgia?

This world of industry is my muse for both the sentiment generated by it being a huge part of my landscape memory and for the freedoms it allows us in our daily life. Yet, within the sentiment I have for this deteriorating world of industry is knowledge of the need for environmental change, our landscape depends on it.

My process is evident in my art; it’s not something I hide, use and then discard, or disguise. The techniques and tools I employ – layers of pigment, sanding, scraping back, lettering – are there, exposed in the finished work. I have chosen to paint with the tools of trade for my application, my main brush being a power sander and applying layers of paint with rollers, large brushes and scrapers.