Statement
Nature, natural science, geography, cartography, and a childlike sense of wonder are recurring themes and elements in my work. The natural world always inspires and nourishes my intrinsic curiosity. Through hiking, climbing, canoeing, kayaking, or orienteering, I am most in my element when discovering and navigating new natural environments.
Painting landscapes is the most effective way for me to communicate experiences in nature, using colour and brushstrokes as my vocabulary. In painting these scenes, I hope to transport the viewer to these discoveries and instill in them a similar sense of awe and reverence for what I've encountered there.
Beyond loving maps, I create “mapscapes” to narrate changes that I see in the land from the modern perspective of aerial and satellite views. In these works there are elements – computer components or machine remnants – that interrupt the natural forms of paint and allude to humankind’s alterations of the natural landscape.
Printmaking is a medium through which I like to churn ideas together and draw surprising conclusions that can only occur when complete control over materials is relinquished to process. Playing in this way with the creative process often leads me into themes of wonder and curiosity in an almost childlike sense.
My hope will always be for the work to continually grow and expand as do my thoughts and ideas over time.
Michael McEwing