Featured Artist - December 2010
Jae McDonald
Eugene, Oregon
chaicreates@comcast.net 
www.jaemcdonald.com
I love working in red, not exclusively, but I continually go back to it. It’s my favorite color, and I love exploring how I can actually use such a bright and passionate color as a neutral, and “force” various shades of red to harmonize. I have been piecing randomly and whatever comes to mind. I find this “stream of consciousness” work very rewarding and relaxing. I also find it interesting to play with the viewer’s eye. The gold accents on Red Center, for example, appear to be green after one has looked at the red for a few moments. Several people have actually insisted that the gold is actually green.
I often have vibrant dreams about the outback of Australia. These dreams are the only ones that I remember in full color. During these dreams, I am often overwhelmed with the feeling of freedom and vastness that I imagine the outback embodies. Red is the color that represents Australia to me, since it is such a vibrant and alive color and is the hue that flows beneath my dreaming feet. Red Center is an abstract of the road that my minds follows as I fly through the red desert. The mispelling in the title is intentional.
“Good fences make good neighbors,” says Robert Frost. During the last ten years, I feel that our country has become a bad neighbor, no longer respecting the boundaries and self-restraint that is required of one so powerful. In Mending Fences, I am symbolically repairing broken fences with my needle and thread, in recognition of all the work that needs to be done to mend our place in the world.
| Grand Canyon Suite 40" x 28", 2008 |
Storm Warning 21" x 26", 2009 |
Making Marks 40" x 32", 2009 |
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