Karen Marston

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist statement

My paintings bear witness to the impact of climate change and the raw power of nature. These range from intimate small works on paper to large scale pieces that envelop the viewer. I produced my most recent work at residencies in the landscapes of Newfoundland and Wyoming. The rocky coast of the North Atlantic and the high desert of the Great Plains share a vast, windswept expansiveness that I find profoundly awe-inspiring. The sublime, an essential element, connects these landscapes to my work about the ecological disasters of global warming. The interrelation of natural and manmade phenomena crystalized for me in 2010 when two concurrent explosions created mirror image columns of smoke—one rising from the burning oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico, the other from a volcano erupting in Iceland. Since then I’ve pursued parallel, complementary bodies of work. The first, paintings of natural catastrophes—the escalation of forest fires, hurricanes and tornadoes, the melting arctic and bleaching coral reefs. The second, landscape paintings immersed in the striking beauty of unscathed nature. Historically, I’m influenced by the majestic drama of Turner and Church, the luminous spirituality of Heade and Kensett. My observation of the landscape is also informed by the current pervasive news images of ever intensifying natural disasters. I am deeply focused on the environmental paradox of beauty and destruction, the struggle between the inescapable power of nature and the hubris of the...

Artwork