LAURA THIPPHAWONG "Edgeland"

36 x 60 inches

Oil on Canvas

Edgeland – An edgeland is the liminal space between a developed and an undeveloped landscape. The rocky escarpment in this painting was the source image from a solo camping trip at Six Mile Lake I took one October when the weather took an unexpected turn and went down to -17 overnight. I began experiencing hypothermia, but survived by meditating, controlling my breathing through the night, and not panicking. 

The reason the painting is called Edgeland is because to me is the space between safety and comfort, and the desire to seek out danger is this mysterious middle-ground that always compels me. The bare legs are symbolic of my intense feeling of connectedness and fragility in nature, and the hare, a favorite recurring image of mine, represents duality. The hare has always fascinated me because of its representation of the ultimate prey, and at the same time it embodies and profound resilience. The hare lives above and underground, between two worlds. The split in the center of the painting symbolizes this duality, as well as the shifting of time and space that I feel I experience when I'm viscerally close to nature.