Record of Earth
by Mya Kerner
I think about the individual in the context of the mountains and their immensity. The mountains remain, while our perception shifts, like atmospheric effects, obscuring, then revealing, in erratic flow. In this movement, we have forgotten that civilization is a construct, built from the pieces of deconstructed mythologies.
Record of Earth (Spain)
Oil and graphite on panel, 30" x 40".
Mountain in Ruby
Oil and graphite on panel, 24" x 36", in collaboration with Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Cascades
Oil and graphite on panel, 9" x 12". On view at Tides & Pines in Seattle, WA.
El Chalten (1)
Oil and graphite on panel, 9" x 12".
In my work, I depict geological disruptions, carved moments and parts within the landscape. Records of denudation captivate me, as these notes present a segmented image of the whole. My wire drawings extrude the contours of the terrain, forming an interdependent framework waiting to be filled by the viewer, with their thoughts and memories. In my paintings, the mountaintops stand crisp against a stark white, and the image often disintegrates as it nears the edges of the painting, for what memory is complete upon its conception?
Filaments 1 (or the Memory of a Mountain)
Steel wire on panel, 30" x 40".
Filaments 3 (or the Memory of a Mountain)
Steel wire on panel, 30" x 40".
Filaments 4 (or the Memory of a Mountain)
Steel wire on panel, 30" x 40".
I wonder what memories the mountains hold, and what indefinable futures are foretold on our deaf ears. We have redefined the individual as ultimate; however, the threats of a changing climate are reawakening a terror. In this loss of control we fear the loss of cities, of homes - human constructs within the false façade of permanence. We are now reminded that, to Nature, the individual is irrelevant, lost to the vastness and susceptible to the ephemerality of being.
Mt. Shuksan
Oil and graphite on panel, 9" x 12".
their works dissolve
Oil and graphite on panel, 9" x 12".
Storm
Oil and graphite on panel, 12" x 18".
Mya Kerner
Originally from Philadelphia, PA, Mya Kerner completed her BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture and Environmental Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD in 2011. Since then, Mya has worked as an artist in residence nationally at Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum in Solsberry, IN and Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL, and internationally as a visiting artist at Akademia Sztuk Pięknych in Gdańsk, Poland. She has shown her work in England, Canada, Poland, Latvia, and, here, in the United States. In 2016, Mya completed a Certificate in Holistic Landscape Design at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA. Working out of her Seattle studio, Mya continues her art practice full time, partnering with designers across North America.