Joshua Tree: Abstract Desert Landscape Paintings
"This Land" Series by Ayin Es.
"Ayin Es reimagines desert life through a unique and playful lens, tinted with an overtly sardonic hue. Throughout, we see random, scattered objects and critters, stranded trailers, and psychedelic mountain ranges, creating an effect that is alternately crude, bizarre, and beautiful. The viewer may find themselves asking where Es' imagination ends, and the desert landscape begins...
"...the vibe also hints at a post-apocalyptic scenario, considering there are no inhabitants in sight. This portrayal succeeds in stripping away the glossy veneer forged in recent years, which suggests that this land is a glamorous, rich-people's playground with endless sunset margaritas enjoyed within dust-free, modern architecture." - Zara Kand, ArtNowLA "Above all, what Es has conveyed so dramatically in the[se] paintings is the pure essence of the intense blue desert skies -- the backdrop to her visual narrative... "...Under her portrayal of these skies, the artist has depicted the prolific rock circle shapes, assorted cacti, trees and other vegetation springing out of the foreground, along with random man-made structures, sculptural oddities and other products of an unbridled imagination, which pervade these thematically connected detail-rich images, verging on dreamscapes." - Megan Abraham, Whitehot Magazine
Artist's Statement: <-click here!
Artist's Statement: <-click here!
Joshua Tree keeps me whole, quiets my mind, and delivers me from chaos. Shamefully, I brought my baggage and anxiety with me to this beautiful place. Instead of being burned alive for my sins, the beauty of the desert offered up nothing but freedom, magic, and fantastic inspiration.
Like many people, thoughts come rushing in: If only we could capture this experience forever--package it up in some way. Maybe it is that sense of belonging.
What does it mean to occupy the desert? Whose land is it anyway? By addressing the meaning of place and belonging, asking these questions seems crucial in the most psychological sense.
By creating these sometimes surreal works, I'm addressing the limitlessness of land and the possession of the terrain. I think about how to hold it still, frozen in my imagination, as a way to procure "ownership" through the heart. Through memory. Without a deed or a paper.
See info about my upcoming solo show!