Julia Lucey: Trying to Fit In
September 7-29, 2024
Opening reception on Saturday, September 7 from 6 to 8pm
Lucey’s body of work is deceivingly playful. In her depictions of nature, the eye is drawn to the bright colors and intricate details of her craft, but the underlying messages in them reference the issues facing wildlife, its dissolution, and the attempt by many to redirect its path. Animals are struggling to find their place to exist within shrinking habitats, where the ecology is being cemented over by mankind. In her pieces, the animals wear a costume or camouflage as a means for survival, to hide from us, as our increasing encroachment increases our encounters with them. Lucey wants to brighten this dismal foretelling and suggest hope for a balance between the natural and the built worlds. She creates traditional aquatint etchings, then she cuts and collages the fine paper into elaborate compositions, completing the piece by painting on the collaged surface. The result is a visual tableau much like the European tapestries of the 17th Century but with a 21st Century message.
