www.brooke-rogers.com

brookeryou@hotmail.com

BROOKE'S LATEST PAINTINGS (2011) adapt quilt tiles with a cyclonic twist, to make abstract images like stylized hurricanes. Mostly borrowed from traditional Amish quilts, the individual elements of each pattern are isolated and enlarged. Also referencing the Pattern and Decoration painting movement of the 1970's and Minimalism, they mix applied art and folk art influences, blurring the line between symbol and object. The colors and rich surfaces assert a material presence that stands up to the symbolism, illusionism and simplified ‘hurricane’ imagery. Within certain restraints (square grid, forty-five degree angles), the twisting motion of a swirling storm emerges. Click here to see the paintings.

Figures in a garden setting recall Eden. The silhouettes in these paintings are based on life drawings of the artist and his wife. Though distorted, the liveliness of the contours and the authenticity of form give the figures a certain credibility. The botanical shapes are baby corn plants, also based on drawings from life. In early summer, young corn is everywhere in their part of the world. While a landscape painter might respond to the color and light of the expansive view, Brooke's sense of form leads him to the curving planes and rippled contours of the new corn. Later in summer, when the plants mature, they become so intermeshed that they cross a line, and become a cornfield, but the young plants, taken as individuals, are like figures reaching and wriggling up to life. Click here to see the paintings.

Hurricanes are thought of as destructive–bringers of chaos, but satellite images show the structural similarities from one to the next. Meteorologists describe such storms as more or less organized, or defined. They have names...eyes...arms. Still, while we personify them, they are terrible in their scope and power, like God. The geometric panels are part maze, part street map. The embedded dialog boxes suggest a conversations of sorts. God, man, talking...Brooke has made pictures of revelation and prayer. Click here to see the paintings.

Click here for a more complete exhibition record. Recent shows include:

"National Juried", Art Institute and Gallery, Salisbury, MD

"Cause Me To Hear It", Solo Show, ArtSpace Gallery, Richmond, VA

"All Art is Local", Water's Edge Gallery, Berlin, MD

Works dating from before 2010, in an earlier version of Brooke's portfolio website. Once you have entered this section of the site, click on the "Brooke Rogers" logo in the upper left corner at any time to return to this home page. Click here to view these previous works.

All images © copyright 2011