April Dawn Parker

April Dawn Parker

april@aprildawnparker.com

Website: https://aprildawnparker.com

   Mill Valley, CA

In my newest body of work, “Cathedral,” I am repurposing an ancient triptych format and using a contemporary lens to look at the environment. I am creating magical realism spaces that put nature on a pedestal in place of religious myths. Our contemporary lack of reverence for the natural order puts us in peril.

My love of the natural world began when I was growing up, roaming the countryside of California’s North Bay. I then traveled east for college and majored in Religious Studies, which led me to the affecting altarpiece paintings of the early Middle Ages. Now, to continue my lifelong obsession with organic forms, I’m using the triptych frame to explore abstracted environments. In these pieces, I am echoing religious paintings while depicting secular settings and geometric forms. Each painting’s name comes from phrases of Rumi’s poetry, the 13th Century Sufi mystic.

Artists who have influenced my work include Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Frank Stella, Ruth Asawa, Monir Farmanfarmaian, and Jan van Eyck.

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