I have been wanting to get on here for weeks and discuss Kim Russo's wonderful watercolors and works on paper. Some of you may have seen her show up at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe a few months back, but if you would like to see her more recent work they will be up at Eight Modern until January 3rd.
Currently, we have up Kim's "Land of Hope and Glory" series. Kim is one of those artists you love to listen to talk about their work. There is very little ego there as she is straightforward with a few hidden, good-humoured surprises. In fact, I really recommend coming in and taking a close, *wink wink look at these works because there is some hidden content referring to a certain Santa Fe educational institute that may be going down…I really can't give details though you will just have to come in!
For a well-articulated description of Kim's "Land of Hope and Glory" series I'll let Kim's statement do the talking as she is a wonderful writer:
“Land of Hope and Glory”, also known as “Pomp and Circumstance”, is a traditional British patriotic song, written in 1902 by A. C. Benson, with music by Sir Edward Elgar. (It was adopted in the United States as the music for graduation ceremonies.)
“Land of Hope and Glory” rapidly became one of the most widely popular songs played during World War 1, the war that preceded the excesses of the 1920s and the stock market crash that followed in 1929. I see a relationship between this period of time in America’s history and the events of the last twenty years. For that reason, many of the images in this series of work come from Great Depression photographs, which I have re-visioned into contemporary scenes.
Currently, much of the world is tittering between deflated glory and wishful hope. This is a time of pessimism and optimism, despair and joy. My goal is to make images that reflect the gap between these contradictions.
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