Archive Mode. Call 2022 DAKOTA PASTEL COMPETITION - FIRST QUARTER ended on 3/16/22, 11:59 PM. Call settings are read only. See Current Open Calls
This piece was inspired by the experience of living through, and ultimately being displaced by, the eruption of Kilauea volcano in 2018. Having lived in the volcanic rift zone for 22 years, I was familiar with the risks but I had made my home there as the volcano had long been central to my artwork. It had always been an absolute certainty that the volcano would, and indeed will in the future, erupt again. Inevitably these eruptions take on the same form — the long line of fissures, the outpouring of lava, and the reshaping of the landscape into new cinder cones and lava fields. Working with soft pastels on sanded paper (400 grit) allows me to build the image in several ways: It allows for smooth gradients of color, as in the sky and ocean. And, using the grit, it allows the creation of highly complex and detailed textures and surfaces such as those in the foreground. In addition, I mixed a slurry from ground-up pastel dust and Spectrafix fixative which allowed me to flick and spray to add extremely fine detail to the textures in the foreground. Some areas in the distance were also worked with pastel pencils.
