New Photo Show: “Janelle Lynch: Presence”

American photographic artist Janelle Lynch had the honor of being the first Artist-in-Residence at the Burchfield Penney Art Center located in Buffalo, New York. (The Art Center is the only museum dedicated to the art of noted American painter Charles E. Burchfield and the artists of Western New York.) Captivated and ultimately drawn to the area by Burchfield’s work, Lynch also found creative inspiration for her verdant photos in Henry David Thoreau’s nature writings and philosophy, which suggests that the natural world is made up of spirits and is part of a far greater spirituality.

The result is Presence, which features 16 images created during Lynch’s residency at the the Burchfield Penney Art Center. The influence of Burchfield and Thoreau has lead Lynch to anthropomorphize her subjects, seeing human-like characteristics in nature, and allowing her to see the presence of her supporters in each still life and tree portrait and thus naming the images accordingly.

Presence grew from Lynch’s exploration of two landscapes, an area located across the street from Charles Burchfield’s former home in Gardenville, New York (now a nature preserve) and her studio in the Catskill Mountains. The accompanying catalog to the show includes an essay by Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections and Charles Cary Rumsey, the Curator at Burchfield Penney.

Presence is on display at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, in Buffalo, NY until November 2, 2014.

More info at the Art Center’s website.

(Caption for image at the top of this story: A tree portrait named after the artist's muse, Charles Burchfield.)

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