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"Lake Keowee" by Emily J. Gomez  |
Conservation and Construction
The Evolution of the American Landscape
February 6th
- March 3rd, 2007
Gallery RFD’s second exhibition was a juried show exploring America’s
unique and diverse landscape. The gallery received art from across the
United States depicting artists' perceptions of what makes up their country’s
landscape: from work depicting beautiful green country scenes, to empty
deserts to snow covered mountains to industrial parkways. The artists
connected a full and comprehensive vision of what it is to exist in America
(East, West, South, North) in one gallery space. The work seemed united
by similar ideas even though the ideas were not the same.The exhibition
made it apparent that America is a large, diverse, but very connected
country. The work stood as a testament to the complex nature of our evolving
country and landscape.
The artwork was ripe with stories about each artist’s connection
to the land. One story that seems very pertinent and should be retold
comes from artist Billy R. Miller’s daughter. Mr. Miller passed
away years ago but his daughter brought in his work for the Conservation
and Construction landscape exhibition. She told the gallery the following
story about the piece of artwork displayed for this show:
“Billy’s mother was a Native American who was married and
had several children with Billy’s father. The Miller side of the
family disowned Billy, his mother, his father, and his other brothers
and sisters because of the marriage. When Billy’s father died, his
mother was left to take care of the children pretty much alone. After
several years, the Miller side of the family visited his mother to say
that there had been a death in their family and that in order to pay the
funeral expenses they would like her to sell the land they were living
on. Billy’s mother did this and gave the money to the Millers for
the funeral cost. The fact was, though, that there had been no death in
their family and they had sold the land to the TVA to be flooded.”
The late Billy R. Miller’s piece titled “Cow path to the
Lake” is a depiction of the land from his memory as a child before
his home was flooded by the TVA. It is one piece within this exhibition
that speaks to an American landscape that is made up of not only soil,
trees, lakes, and horizon lines but of memories of our past and hopes
for the future of our great nation.
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