"Seeing Through It" exhibition in Lethbridge features local artists

Corrected for accuracy.

Art  Exhibition  at the Casa Gallery,  Lethbridge
Exhibition runs from September 7 to October 26, 2013
Paintings by Mike Judd, Eric Martens, James Palmer, Blake Wilson

"Seeing Through It" mission statement

In 1982, American  social scientists  James Q. Wilson and George  L. Kelling published  the Broken Windows Theory. The theory postulates that if you start to degrade an environment,  the degradation  implies permission for further degradation.  So the effect snowballs. If broken windows are OK, there will be more broken windows. Graffiti and trash follow, then crime, then  lawlessness,  fear, alienation,  desertion. A degraded  environment degrades the people who live in it. Standards,  morals, pride, diminish to the point where they are forgotten.


We landscape artists feel that industry is degrading our natural environment.  The more of the invasion we see around us, the more permission is implied. We, voters, consumers,  citizens, let it start, we let it spread. We are letting our standards  be lowered. Some are already forgotten.  Controlling  elements  in our society know this about us. That we have forgotten, don't care anymore.

We no longer even expect healthy air, water, and earth. We don't even expect survival of the myriad life forms upon which we depend.

In this exhibition, we are trying to see through the deception and denial that have led us to this. We are very aware that the process of broken windows is well underway in our rivers, grasslands,  forests and mountains.

In this exhibition, one artist tries to recreate the feeling of the pristine area west of Claresholm where he loved to take his children when they were young. Another artist uses powerline company maps to show the red lines of proposed electrical transmission  pylons and cables across country he cherishes. Another artist tries simply to express on canvas the joy of knowing and feeling nature, that he sees being increasingly invaded. Another paints history -  where we have been, what we have lost, where we have ended up.

We are fighting to preserve our sense of beauty. If we lose it, we lose all. If we preserve it, there is hope.