Changing Waters

Aaron Brady & Greg Pierce
July 4 - 27

First Thursday: July 11, 5 - 8pm

Artists' Reception: July 20, 3 - 6pm

In Changing Waters, Aaron Brady and Greg Pierce tap into their unique forming processes to reveal the impact oil and gas fracking extraction have on water resources. Hydraulic fracking utilizes large volumes of fresh water that become contaminated with chemical additives and salty brines.  Much of this wastewater is injected into deep rock formations that can impact drinking water aquifers or be released untreated, back into surface waters.

Aaron’s arresting approach using aqueous media, expresses the mingling of fresh and contaminated water that is aesthetically alluring and equally disturbing. Evocative color and form swirl into chaotic layered clusters of pure expression.

Greg’s work emulates geologic processes of landscape formation using local rock materials blended with ceramics, recycled glass, and reclaimed glaze.  For this exhibit, he created forms seemingly torn from the depths of wastewater injection sites that ooze with expulsions from pockets and crenulations within the rock. While sap is a tree’s defense mechanism warding off invading insects, here it conveys diseased underworld aquifers.

While both of these artists acknowledge their use and benefit from these energy resources, they also want to create more awareness and dialogue for how we can make better choices that balance our current resource extraction practices with stronger conservation efforts, particularly as it relates to our precious water resources.