Ed Rath “Eden Today”

Noho Gallery / M55

poster for Ed Rath “Eden Today”

This event has ended.

Artist’s Statement

A powerful metaphor for the loss of innocence we all experience after entering this world, the Biblical description of the Garden of Eden and the fall of man is one of our culture’s most enduring dramas. Through its rich imagery the story ignites a longing for a pristine world where suffering does not exist.

In seeking ways to create our own, private safe havens, homeowners furnish their houses with objects of comfort; gardeners tame the land with domestic ground cover; artists fill canvasses with images of the ideal world. Apartment dwellers tend small plants and window boxes to keep them connected to the sacred place of our origins.

We equate beauty with perfection. A beautiful garden brings us back to Eden. Lush fruit trees remind us life is good. Flowers in their fleeting moment return us to past glory. Painted flowers freeze time through a simple gesture, a single line. Capturing this ephemeral beauty has been the quest of artists through the centuries, even as we pollute and destroy the very earth that inspires us to imagine a more sublime world. Centuries of overuse of the once verdant Fertile Crescent has rendered the area a virtual desert, impoverishing and embittering its people from a part of their spiritual nourishment. The original Garden of Eden no longer exists, but its legacy lives on in the imagination of every generation, helping to restore our guilelessness, however briefly.

In my landscape paintings I have always tried to take the viewer to another place. This group of paintings is no different. I have come to the realization that it is through the act of painting trees, flowers and animals that I recreate the Garden of Eden for myself. A bent apple tree in a friend’s garden caught my attention a few years ago. I sketched it in my journal and used that drawing as the central image in “Eve’s Garden.” That piece led to “Ten Years Later,” an imaginary scene showing the Garden of Eden as an overgrown lot, sullied with beer cans and a petrified apple core, abandoned by the descendents of its original occupants.

The landscape also figures prominently in my dream world, where it is often infused with a foreboding element of mystery. Travelling through these imaginary forests and farmlands refreshes my being, preparing me for whatever the day may bring.

Inspiration to experiment with this subject came to me after reading Milton’s Paradise Lost, Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve, and from looking at the paintings of the Hudson River School artists.

Media

Schedule

from June 25, 2013 to July 13, 2013

Opening Reception on 2013-06-29 from 17:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Ed Rath

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