Allyson Comstock

• Artist

Biography

Artist Statement

We live in time when it feels like everything happens in a second. Everything is fast and instantaneous. With a few clicks of a button and we can find any information, send a message and have it answered immediately, locate ourselves in the world, share our feelings or opinions.

We live in a time when it feels as though everything has accelerated. I am interested in slowing down. I seek experiences that come from extended observation – possible only with a passage of time. Recent work explores the natural world that we see and the invisible one that lies behind it. In the words of Claude Bernard “Man can learn nothing unless he proceeds from the known to the unknown.”

Following the practices of earlier naturalist explorers who traveled to investigate unfamiliar species and habitats, my explorations have taken me to the lake that forms my backyard, the rainforests of Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands and most recently Antarctica. I rely on careful observation to inform my artistic practice but it departs from scientific inquiry in the subjectivity of the results. The work is not a description of place rather a record of my perception and my reaction. It is an indication.

My creative process is slow and labor intensive, requiring many repetitions. This echoes the repetitions found in nature – the many needles on a pine tree branch, the countless grains of sand on an ocean floor, the endless cycles of planets leading to the rising and setting of the sun, or the reoccurring change of seasons. In all these examples something greater is made through repetition – a tree, a beach, a span of time. It is meaningful to me to create my artwork in a manner that speaks of the flow of the natural world. It is meaningful to me to slow down.