The Threshold. Tess Darling, artist
On Friday, November 4, from 5:30–8 p.m., Mark Bettis Gallery will host an opening reception for Sublimity in Gold: An Expedition Through Elements of Earth, a collection of paintings by Tess Darling. The exhibition was inspired by Darling’s whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
“Being invited to participate in an expedition through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River allowed me the privilege of photographing and experiencing 25 days of mostly isolated wilderness—a major life event compared to my typical excursion,” says Darling. “I got to absorb a month living outside with a group of people, whitewater rafting between camp spots, hiking through creek beds and boulder fields, canyoneering through slot canyons—reluctantly from my fear of heights—and sleeping under the stars and moonlight.”
Darling says the color gold came from a mixture of terror and awe that she felt at the scale of her environment during the trip. “I used this color before as an old-world sensibility for the Appalachian mountains; a moody romance with an underlying layer of darkness,” she says.
“Not only did the golden hour in the canyon reflect the color, but conceptually my perspective was in its highly valued nature and violent history. I felt as if I was seeing things through a gold-colored lens, remarking on the highs and lows of the vulnerability within such a wild place.”
The exhibition will run through Monday, November 14, and 10 percent of sales will benefit the nonprofit organization MountainTrue, which champions resilient forests, clean waters and healthy communities in the southern Blue Ridge.
Mark Bettis Gallery is located at 15 Broadway Street, Asheville. For more information, visit MarkBettisGallery.com.
