2021 could not have been any crazier it seems with the continuation of Covid issues and concerns. I was able to hang this exhibition in Bangor last week with help of my friend Kirk Linder and clear the studio of the last of the “Big” covid projects. A sense of relief and the beginning of what may Artists dread- “What next”?!

I will not say much here except show some images from the installation and my Artist Statement. I must thank Annette Dodd at Sohns for trusting me and letting me do this my way. Enjoy- Peter

This whole Pandemic thing has me “awaiting the second shoe to drop” and I know many of you are listening for it too. The Pandemic hit hard and fast. It forced us to rethink what and who we are, where we live, and how we relate to one another. One thing I did pay close attention to was the retreat from “hot spots”, from cities, from the fear of contracting an illness not fully understood. I observed Maine as it quickly began to fill with vehicles from near and far with the many many passengers all looking to find space to breathe, looking to locate and claim their 6 feet of personal landscape.

RETREAT

an act of moving back or withdrawing.
a quiet or secluded place in which one can rest and relax.
a period of seclusion for the purposes of prayer and meditation.

retreat Shape of Land, Shape of Water

I too retreated- Sometimes by car but mostly by turning inward and drawing upon memory of landscape(s) and “Places I have been”. The daily act of painting these landscapes in small watercolors eased my internal worries during the lockdown- This is and always has been my medicine.

Eventually these cerebral retreats to the landscape paintings became larger and more intense, now painting on scrap plywood, cutting away the detritus, shaping my own personal landscapes. Each work began to have their own personalities and were obviously fragments of something larger in my mind. Back when I was a graduate student in Baton Rouge, in the 1990s, our Print-workshop was delegated to a small, dark, below grade space shared with what was then and now an underused, quite dusty, yet alluring Natural History Museum. I would spend countless hours in the museum drawing inspiration and creating Artwork based upon these collected and catalogued “windows to the natural world”. These memories inspired this current thought of putting together, curating, these Pandemic fragments, not unlike the museum displays I remember so well. I offer up this exhibition as a glimpse into MY Pandemic retreat and what it has taught me thus far. Peter Walls 2021

RETREAT•retreat - A 4.5’ end wall became the focal point for the text and the watercolors that began , and continue, this project.

RETREAT•retreat - Installation in progress.