Bluebird Salt and Pepper Shakers (Suburban Dreamscape)

Valerie Carew

Artist Statement

Bluebird Salt and Pepper Shakers, Oil on Wood, 36” x 48,” 2018

and

The Run, Oil on Wood, 36” x 48,” 2018

The setting for these paintings feature fallow farmland slated for suburban housing

development. The land had already been bulldozed and pushed around, but what is

seen here is the immediate and tenacious insistence of the ecosystem, made up of

native and non-native plant and animal species, to reclaim and cover the unprotected soil. The kitsch figurines act as nature replacements within the home, however they are also reminders of our human presence in the landscape- acting as proxies for the human invasive species.