At its core, Ten Years Gone by Kristi Marsh Watson is a celebration of natural processes and change. It is a show that reflects the beauty and enduring qualities of change, whether in nature or the self, through various media. Using materials such as spray paint, cyanotype, puff paint, lumber, and even whiskey lids, Watson creates pieces illustrating the importance of embracing personal change, reflecting on the past, and recognizing the inevitability of change in the future.

The Moon Halo series comprises 33 related but distinct lumber slices with acrylic and mixed media. Watson uses the naturally occurring rings in the wood to make an alternative canvas with an array of blues, blacks, and yellows that mimic the rings in the wood. Some of these slices may look similar at first glance, but it is the minutiae of the pieces that make for their originality; it may be a small chip off the corner of one piece or a crack in the wood radiating to the center rings, or a variation in the color used to paint the rings in the wood.

*Moon Halo Series*
Acrylic and mixed media on lumber slice
5.5” x 5.5” x 1.5”

The How it Used to Be series is five pieces of Japanese calligraphy ink on watercolor paper. Each piece includes dots of deep black ink, with the ink radiating out from the center in amorphous shapes. The dots are clustered together, and the ink interacts and blends to create continuous shapes of shades of black and white.

The Ten Years Gone series is five mixed media pieces on watercolor paper. Each piece depicts a natural landscape of sorts, but from an aerial view; you’ll notice that in each of the pieces, a small motif of an airplane’s shadow is present, further enforcing the idea of looking down on various landscapes. Watson uses creases and folds in the watercolor paper to mimic the contours of natural landscapes, such as mountains and valleys, or waves and currents in the ocean.

*Ten Years Gone Series*
Mixed media on watercolor paper in matte gold frame
12” x 12”

Ten Years Gone unmistakably reflects the beauty and change of natural landscapes and, in the artist’s words, the variation in both “internal and external landscapes that shape our world.” The depiction of natural change in these pieces emulates the change individuals go through and how it can often be for the better.

*Changes fill my time*
Mixed media on canvas

See Kristi Marsh Watson’s Ten Years Gone in the Annex Gallery through April.

10 Years Gone