Katherine Borkowski Byrne Massachusetts ANTHROPOGENIC DISTURBANCES I Oil on Canvas 22 x 66

Katherine Borkowski Byrne Massachusetts ENDANGERED KEYS Oil on Canvas 22 x 66

Katherine Borkowski Byrne Massachusetts HER NATIVE SHORE Oil on Canvas 22 x 66

Lyndie Vantine Maryland FALL BETWEEN THE CRACKS  Oil, Canvas & Branches,  40 x 26 x 6

Lyndie Vantine Maryland RED LEAVES  Oil, Canvas & Branches,  49 x 26 x 6

Lyndie Vantine Maryland THE GRASS IS GREENER Oil, Canvas, Branches 23 .5 x 13.5 x 3

Lyndie Vantine Maryland GRAY MORNING Oil, Masonite, Branches 15 x 12 x 2

Ricardo Pontes Maryland LILI 20 x 16 oil on canvas

Ricardo Pontes Maryland SELF PORTRAIT 16 x 20 Black and white charcoal on gray paper

Missing Image Ricardo Pontes Maryland Oil on Canvas

KATHERINE BORKOWSKI BYRNE:

I have been using fish imagery or just fish shapes and movements for thelast 15 years. This image works for me on at least three levels. On a symbolic level, I believe the fish nature is the crudest animal nature of our character and water, a symbol of the unconscious. On the more representational level, the fish interests me in its contours, textures and colors. I also love painting the rough sea with its mystery and power.

Recently, the fish came to be more about the underwater environment and us. This latest series is an attempt to express the drama of the underwater world without being too representational. The three paintings in the Met on the Internet Exhibit represent the attack of the reefs and the upset of the ecological balance that allow algae or coral predators to overrun the reefs. I have read that unless current trends are reversed up to 70% of the world's coral reefs may be destroyed in the next couple of generations and would probably mean the extinction of thousands of marine species. I believe one can communicate through paint in an expressive and creative pictorial sense that realism or photography cannot do, and I propose to express my hopes and fears for this environment through this work.

LYNDIE VANTINE:

"Specific places are often remembered long after the sojourn - through collected mementos - bits and pieces of objects that trigger deeper memory senses. A siteUs significance comes back to me by using the actual objects. Branches, leaves, stones and other rubble I collect from an area act as memory touchstones. These accumulations are vivid aids to my memory and other senses in the reconstruction of an image. This debris is part of the re-creation: the part that tells of its own history, and at the same time inspires me as observer and player in the experience.

"I am interested in the visual interaction of the real and the illusionary object. There are the real branches, leaves, canvas and paint; yet the paint and canvas also work in the illusion of the landscape, which includes the objects. There is a blurring of the lines between sculpture and painting. When are these elements the symbol, the symbolized or possibly both? How do they stand for themselves (art object) and yet also for the other (the idea)?"