June, 2008 Exhibit:

Peter Kinney : Mud in Your Eye
images from show

Leslie Kaufman : Ecological Disturbances

June 6 - 29, 2008
Opening Reception : Friday, June 6, 5 - 9pm
Hours: Thurs 12 - 4pm, Fri 3 - 7pm, Sat and Sun 12 - 5pm

Peter Kinney's Flickr page with more images from this show

Mudman, (a.k.a. Peter Kinney) has been playing with mud again-- playing with colorful earth from Nevada, picked up on a trip to Burning Man.

He has returned to his haunts in the canyon lands, playing with sand and color from the San Juan River Gorge, where he thinks the spirits of Gaia are speaking to him.

There are new explorations in the slot canyons of the Escalante Monument: Lick Wash, Willis Creek, Bull Gorge, and, further south, Crack Canyon. Being alone with these canyons can conjure up many spirits.

Since his last major show there has been a trip to Thailand, which has released some sand and water play; and to Campobello Island in New Brunswick, where he had a significant relationship with the brilliant night sky and dark sand beach.

I've always loved a smorgasbord. I think this show is one, serving up my gatherings and loves since my last major show, including a raw bar: work that is un-glassed, unboxed, to allow a closer look at textures and details."

Wait, I can't forget the chocolate drawings, when I lost my head and became Cocoa Man for a while."

What about that big mess in the driveway? "Oh that? I'm shooting for a few huge drawings for the show, an incarnation of the MUD-MOMENT, made by Mud Slinger, Mud Jumper, and Mud Tracker."

My work has always hovered between an inner and outer landscape. I never know where I am.

-Peter Kinney

ps. My book, EARTH, MOON, AND SUN, of facing poems and paintings, should be out by the opening June 6

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,

Out of the mockingbird's throat, the musical shuttle,

Out of the Ninth-month midnight…

(from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass)

… the spirits of Gaia are speaking,

they haunt the canyon lands,

new explorations with brilliant night sky and dark sand.

In textures and details they hover

between inner and outer landscape.

(adapted from Peter Kinney, a.k.a.Mudman)

The hills are scratched and scarred,

mined and veined

they lie fallow and dry

cracks widening and hardening,

a language of whorls and crevasses

imprinted, but not spoken

A hand presses the earth, signals.

The words have no sound.

(Leslie Kaufman)