Judith Brandon + our changing planet
All of Judith Brandon’s paintings concern nature – cloud-tumbled and storm-whipped, rainy or foggy or, sometimes, caught in a rare moment of calm. In her work, planet Earth inspires awe by its power to punish and change.
But Earth may be a victim, too, as humankind works its punishing forces on land, sea and sky, and Brandon can’t help but think about it all.
As a member of the 16-artist team of artists with work in the PNC SmartHome at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, she has demonstrated her concerns about how we’re changing the planet and how we can reduce our negative impact.
Sustainability has been top of mind since 2002, when Brandon talked to wildlife rehabilitator Dr. Mark Atkinson.
At the time, Brandon said, Atkinson had just come from doing work at a rhinoceros reserve in South Africa. He was asked to leave after catching his own guards poaching.
“He told me that breeding programs are great for education, but there will be nowhere to release them in the future,” Brandon said. “In the end, most animals will be captive in one way or another. My brain did a 180, and I have been conscious about how my life affects the environment in a deeper way ever since.”
Brandon is both awed and frightened by big storms, but loves using her art to speak about it. A graduate of Cleveland Institute of art with majors in both drawing and enameling, Brandon applies some of the techniques of the latter. In some paintings, she scribes into the surface of the work, and she creates a sense of movement and space through the application of thin layers of transparent and opaque color.
“Each piece is started with a circle,” she says. “This is my reminder that the planet is a living thing and how grateful I am to be a part of it. From there I work intuitively in the most expressive way I know to explore the many facets of weather and the sublime aspects of unusual natural occurrences.”
In a way, the process mimics the content.
“I use water when making thin washes of color,” she says. “Water is a beautiful and destructive element. There is an echo of the big picture when trying to control water on paper.”
Sometimes, she adds, “there is no resolve, and I feel like the Weather Channel guy standing on the dock reporting about the hurricane.”
Artwork shown: Atlantis is Sinking, Judith Brandon
