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I explore landscape as my primary artistic concern. Although I mostly paint from my imagination, the images I create are based on what I have already seen.
I think about the role that culture and imagination play in how we look at landscape. Most of the time, our thinking about our environment is aligned with the conventions of our time and place, and our perceptions are formed by what our senses are able to tell us. Yet within these limitations, the possibility exists for a shift in awareness. We transcend what we have known before, and the world looks completely different. I engage this idea by observing the environment around me, then distilling my imagery through my own memory. What remains is an idea about a place. By forgoing the details of a real place at a specific time, the images become spare and dreamlike, hovering between what we consider "real" and certain romantic notions about landscape.
I have lived in Chicago for most of my life. For many years I have painted images of water and sky, based on Lake Michigan, and images of the moon in various phases. In both series, I use the sky as the backdrop, influenced by the endless drama of weather and precipitation above our heads. These images are grounded in the urban environment, and are my response to the stresses I encounter living where I do. I paint these paintings not as a means of escape, but as a way to engage more completely with my surroundings. These images, pared down to essentials, depict sights familiar to Chicagoans. But they are also elemental and universal, thus connecting us to people all over the globe and throughout time. I offer them as a reminder of intelligence to which we all have access, but sometimes forget about in our daily routine.
Louise LeBourgeois
August, 2009
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