Individual Artist Project

Visitors to the aquarium come hoping to find the natural world explained to them. At the beginning of the walk through the Aquarium, the GLA curators make tectonic plates and ice ages comprehensible to children. As they move through the live exhibits, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals are almost domesticated for view. The final exhibit within the museum maps the lock and dam systems of the Great Lakes, a monument, really, to the domestication of the Lakes and of the ecosystems in which in the Lakes reside. Nature bends to our will; the Lakes are reduced to shipping lanes for wooden boats. My work will reenchant nature for visitors to the Great Lakes Aquarium. "Aurora Borealis over Gitchee-Gami" will bring the power, the beauty, and the sublimity of the experience of the natural world back into focus for visitors to the Great Lakes Aquarium. In so doing, the viewers will resonate with the Aurora and, hopefully, with the important place of art as a tool for our encounters with nature.; In a way, I am working to widen my artistic horizons materially as well as within my artistic subjects. Materially, I am working to refine my techniques with large canvases, opening up new possibilities. In terms of my subject, I am attempting to explore nonrepresentational art ? to represent not a landscape or a figure, but an experience. For my audience, I am hoping to widen appreciation for the Aurora as an ephemeral phenomenon and for art as a means of understanding and communicating that phenomenon. Unlike most other experiences of the natural world, the Aurora is unpredictable. Even an eclipse can be planned to see. For most viewers, we need art (photography, video, painting) to share the Aurora. Perhaps painting, most of all the forms, can communicate not only what the Aurora looks like, but what it feels like. I have been exhibiting my work since 2012, in both solo shows and in group or multiple artist gallery shows. Two experiences have shaped my approach to this project. First, the pandemic has taught me the importance of reaching diverse audiences (through, for example, social media). As the world shut down, my craft expanded as I used social media to connect with new consumers of art. Second, my experience in placing my work in unusual exhibition spaces (e.g. Lake Superior College, Northland Country Club, Western Bank and Bell Bank to name a few) taught me that art works best when you reach people where they are. These lessons inform my practice in this exhibition, in using traditional and social media to generate interest in the show, and in using the unusual venue for the exhibition (the Aquarium) to reach new audiences where they, and often, their children, already are.; Didactic panels will include a QR code taking visitors to a subpage on my Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/aaronklossart). The page will include pictures and open-ended questions inviting visitors to interact with the work and artist. For children, the questions ask them to compare the Aurora to other experiences that pass quickly and unexpectedly (from shooting stars to wildlife in your backyard) ? sharing their experiences with nature as fleeting. For adults, questions invite them to respond to the experience of art ? to reflect on the way we move from seeing marks on a canvas to seeing the Aurora. When we look at a painting, we don't see the paint, nor do we see the Aurora, literally ? in a way, we see emotions and feelings. Comments on the Facebook page will capture audience feedback on the ways that my work (in this new, large format) helps visitors to the Aquarium feel the Aurora, increasing their appreciation for the power of art.