Steven Sachs and Rebecca Des Marais

Drought, 2009
Dried Lake Bed – cellulose, adhesive and acrylic paint
Canvas – Oil based enamels, acrylic, analine dye
84” x 185”

ARTIST STATEMENT

The idea behind Drought was not a new one. In the early 1980’s Steven Sachs began a series of paintings called High Tide, Low Tide, and No Tide. No Tide was the forerunner of Drought. It was a scene painted on masonite in a hard-edged style using oil-based enamel paints, ink, and analine dye. At the time was in multiple or repetitious patterns or shapes, and combining distant realities. Such as floating on a lake with no water, or simply a lake with no water. Although Sach’s work has become more sculptural over the years, this painting approach still applies to this current version with one alarming exception, the concept of a lake with no water is no longer a surreal image, its very real today, and very threatening.

Rebecca Des Marais “dried lake bed” brings together two artists with different backgrounds, techniques, and approaches to art and, more specifically, to this project. In noting her process, Des Marais states that “while laying out the tiles I made to simulate cracked earth of a dried lake bed, the tiles became paint pieces with their own hue and value. The challenge was to blend them as well as connect their contours to achieve the desired effect.”

The artists’ conversation about creating this installation began at a time when Atlanta was in the midst of a multi-year drought, and as Des Marais notes “something experienced around the world….When visiting my family in Kenya this summer, I saw first hand the devastation that lack of rain creates—sun-dried crops, skinny livestock, hunger, rationing of water and electricity, and vegetation and buildings covered by a fine red dust stirred up from the dry earth—all the resulting ills caused by the domino effect of drought. This experience gave my participation in Drought much more resonance."

Artists are always trying to learn and expand upon what they have previously done. Being able to incorporate the sculptural elements of the viewing dock, dried lake bed and umbrella handles open up new dimensions and interpretations. While the original paintings were an indirect homage to surrealist painters, the scenery has become an all too familiar reality.