The colorful flourishes and calm spaces in Ann Worthing's paintings invite a unique sort of looking that allows the viewer to explore and discover each individual world with the curiosity of an aimless wanderer. Landscapes unfold slowly as different textures, figures, and gestures flicker into and out of view, and the viewer's presence in the space shifts between individual and communal; the wanderer is at once a single unit in a network of other separate fragments, and a thread in a fluid, dynamic whole. From this duality, the paintings gain a sense of constant movement, where even the most serene and static elements--tree trunk, country road, horizon--refuse stillness. Each form appears to move at its own pace, and the viewer remains free to navigate the dips and turns at a different speed altogether. Rather than producing discord, this freedom of movement encourages a subtle yet powerful fluidity, which ultimately creates in each piece a cohesive cadence.
Worthing describes this viewing process as a "slow, intentional wandering and noticing" that echoes the manner in which she envisioned and created the pieces. Taking into account the emotional and psychological sense of the landscapes she observes, Worthing walks her way through the painting process, locating herself and losing herself, discovering some things and dismissing others, in an attempt to grasp the malleable quality of a unique space in time.
