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Mary Merkel-Hess
On a trip to Japan, Mary Merkel-Hess says
she was happy with a visit to the island of
Hokkaido where she found a completely
different landscape than she had found in
Tokyo. The light was different, she says,
like nothing she had ever seen before. She
was transfixed by the quality of this light.
The snow was iridescent, as if lit from
within. The sky was a deep, even gray but
somehow not opaque. And the deep forest
was monolithically dark. Working from a
photo she wondered, what color were those
trees actually? Deepest green, almost black
or brown? She did multiple sketches over
the days following, though she did not have
paints with her. That was followed by many
more sketches from memory made when
she returned to Iowa, continuing to experi-
ment with this memory of Japan for several
more years, never being able to capture all
the details that crowded in her mind. Dark
Woods (Threads of Memory) is Merkel-
Hess’s best attempt to capture something
of these few days that she spent in the winter
light of northern Japan.
194mm Dark Woods
architectural board, paper, wood
22” x 75” x 2”, 2014
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