Sigh. This is the work of American artist Mya Kerner. The last time I wrote about Mya, her mountains were inky blue… but for her latest show, currently hanging at Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle, her palette is filled with muted, dreamy pastel hues. Here is part of her artist statement for “The Rise and Fall of Stone”:

“My work revolves around ancestral history, storytelling, and ecological concern in an exploration of memory and landscape. The paintings reference specific landscapes, but I work to depict each place somewhere between reality and memory. In the landscapes, white space meets fields of muted color through shattered lines of graphite, suggesting a continuous cycle of transformation …

… My background in permaculture and a lineage of Eastern European foresters first drove me to explore humanity’s relationship with the natural world through my art practice. More recently, I have expanded on these ideas, reacting to anthropocentrism and a sense of uprootedness, both personal and intergenerational, by studying Earth-based traditions. As I reflect upon stories from the spirits of the land, my own memory, and those of my ancestors, I ask questions about how we relate to place through the lenses of wildness, stewardship, civilization, and change.”

Beautiful. This show is open now through the month of January, and the artist reception is tomorrow night, Thursday January 9th from 6~9pm.