How'd you like to get momentarily lost on a fanciful journey where artistic flourishes dance cheek-to-cheek with textural nuances and the occasional well-placed whimsy of Mother Nature? Great...then saddle up for a happy go lucky ride.
Minneapolis-based contemporary artist Gregory Euclide has carved out a niche for himself as a master and creator of mythical landscapes that literally leap off of the page in sweeping three dimensional incarnations.
His scenes -- plucked straight out of an Alice in Wonderland-type world (ramped up on copious amounts of hallucinogenic mushrooms) – are sensuous, dreamy and altogether seductive.
You can’t help but wish that you were experiencing them firsthand. Where’s the ‘drink me-eat-me’ prompt when you need it?
Instantly drawing you in, the mind teleports itself within the center of all the action to sample the lush scenery and draw in the heady scent and visual majesty of Euclide’s imagination.
His touch-worthy creations, made primarily out of painted bits of paper that have been folded, twisted and stretched, offer his audience “something that is discoverable and takes time to view”.
The artist’s works emerge “from a collective memory of landscape” to which he challenged his imagination and creative talent to expand upon.
The enchantment that he experienced as a boy while spending hours on end playing in the forest is definitely reflected in his artistic interpretations of magical swirling scenes punctuated with the elements of water, wood, earth and botanicals.
He’s also dabbled in recycled bubble wrap installations, as with this example in which individual sections of the incredibly fun-to-pop plastic packing material were filled with local water samples and then used to crown hundreds of miniature landscape scenes.
A profound respect for nature is reflected in every piece within his portfolio along with an equal dose of utter originality.
Formerly stark white, plain-Jane pieces of paper are animated with the essence of Mother Nature’s spirit in a way that is rarely achieved in today’s contemporary art world.
Marching to the beat of his own drummer, Euclide’s mastery of ethereal, otherworldly places “explores the contradictions between the projection of idealized, picturesque views of landscape and our desire to have an authentic experience in nature”.
Any time we’re able to indulge in artistic experiences that allow us to step outside the heaviness of real life and smack dab into the creamy-cool center of a magical alternative reality of pure escapist fantasy, we should consider ourselves truly fortunate.
This is one of those times.
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