Statement

This exhibition titled ESTUARY is a series of paintings and drawings that trace the path of the out-flowing river meeting the incoming tide from the ocean, also tracing the mix of clear and salt water. This mixing creates a transition zone between land and sea known as an estuary.  Estuaries rank along with tropical rain forests and coral reefs as the planets most productive ecosystems and are in danger of disappearing if actions are not taken to protect them and the plants and animals that call them home. 

 

 

REVIEW by R.B.Flowers  SSC, Visual Arts Specialist

In ESTUARY, Gibson’s focus is on the lower course of a river where it flows into the sea, a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments.  Salty tidal flows churn and seethe as they merge with fresh water. The rich nutrients resulting in teeming habitats for fish and wildlife, captured by Gibson in sensuous layers of oil stick glowing on and behind her translucent Mylar ‘canvases,’ her scribbled calligraphic strokes simultaneously metamorphosing into turbulent watery surges, schools of fish or roiling surf.  For each viewer, it will be different.  Yes, there is a mystery here; some will see straight lines as hints of man-made docks, piers or even,  . . .  shipwrecks.