On First Friday, October 2nd, from 5 to 8 pm, please join Saco artist Ann Tracy as she premieres her newest work in the Unlikely Universes limited edition series. The 12 pieces in the suite are based on photographs taken while Tracy was "greening" her studio practice in painting, so she wouldn't dump brush water containing microplastics down the drain. Gallery hours will be 1 to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays during October or by appointment. There will also be a talk on microplastics TBA and on another weekend, an Ekphrastic Poetry afternoon with award winning local poets.
"I can see the irony in photographing the dregs of a painting project and turning it into a digital art project", Tracy said. "I've always been a 'tree hugger' but when my husband and I moved to a house with a septic system, a few years ago, I realized that everything would eventually go into the groundwater, where we and others in our neighborhood get water for our wells."
To green her studio practice, she devised a low tech system involving washing brushes in a metal cup and then pouring that colored liquid into an aluminum pan, where it then evaporates. As she worked on paintings for a show in 2023, some swirling, colorful drama was occurring in that pan that Tracy was able to photograph.
The resulting images reminded her of the Hubble telescope photos of the universe. This in turn led to thoughts of the string theory of physics, where multiple universes exist at the same time. Since she was creating universes, why not populate them?
To experience these dozen universes by appointment, email Tracy at quackyAnn@duck.com. Follow her artistic journey by joining her free substack: anntracy.substack.com/