Leigh McCarthy is a San Francisco-based artist who works in mixed media, using traditional materials and digital tools to create work that is at once ethereal and concrete; classical and thoroughly contemporary. As it happens, she's also fascinated by shipwrecks, which appear as a recurring theme in her art. Telstar Logistics asked Leigh to explain her choice of subject matter:
My most recent solo show, "Wrecked" took place fittingly in the middle of a hurricane. the gallery windows were boarded up. Luckily, we weathered the storm without incident.
I cannot tell you why I am drawn to shipwrecks. I can just tell you that the pull is strong for me. A ship run aground resembles a beached whale; a massive vessel which reveals its vulnerability. All is not lost, the boat teeters between the dual possibilities of catastrophe and recovery.
My work deals with accidents not only in subject matter but also in the process of production. I happened upon the process (to create "Ghost Ship") accidentally, when I discovered a way to capture ink breaking down. capturing the process of decaying pigments using both analog and digital processes. Each time, further removing the image from its source, suggesting that what is not there can be as evocative as what is: stories untold; disasters unrecorded; pitfalls unseen.
IMAGES: Art by Leigh McCarthy. From top: "Nobody Loses All the Time," "Run Aground," "The Ghost Ship II," "I Am Sunk."
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