Yuri Arajs
There are many things related to weather that interest me. One of them is that weather is emotional. Rain, snow, thunder, heat; they all make me feel a certain way, which is inescapable. The weather makes the experience physical because it touches on different senses, which compounds the experience.
Vancouver Island is the type of place where the weather is a very visual experience and one that changes very often. Living here, and being a relatively new resident, is a huge inspiration for this body of work.
I have considered myself a landscape or nature painter for a while so the idea of painting weather is a natural thing. And it kind of already happens. When painting a landscape you are automatically influenced by the weather. Light and dark are only one example of this. The difference being that in this body of work the weather is truly the focus, visually speaking.
Most of, if not all of the work in this show, is on wood or a found object. I enjoy these types of surfaces because they come with so much information that nature or elements of the weather have contributed. The wood pieces in particular are more alive because of the grain and color of the wood, which can add so much. I have more flexibility with the wood because there is more to choose from. I choose and isolate areas of a found object to work with, and this choice is part of my creative process. When working with a piece of found metal or a book cover, you are confined to certain size restrictions. And like working with wood, the markings on the surface are completely unique to the piece.
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