Don Bracken: ''Gumbo Variations" clay and acrylic on canvas

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

I started a series of paintings , veiws from the Flood Plain , this last summer 2007. It was actually quite unpremeditated. I was plein air painting with acrylics on canvas out on farm in Weathersfield , Ct and I felt disconnected from the what I was doing , and like who needs a another idealized landscape . So out of frustration I started mixing the soil from the farm with acrylic medium and suddenly I felt this viseral connection with the land . I had a realiztion that this land probably would be populated with MacMansions and a strip mall if this farm wasn't in the flood plain . I listen to books on tape while I work , many of these paintings were done while listening to books like The Omnivores Dilema , Grapes of Wrath . .. many of the paintings in this series were done on location using the dirt from the farm and they reflect my growing awareness about the direction of the American agricutural industrial complex . These paintings are from my show in 2008 at New Arts Gallery .