
Paffenrath Slough near Muscoda
These portfolios explore how we experience and understand common natural landscapes in a time some have described as “post-nature”.
The focus is on the upper Midwest, my home. I look for unexpected aesthetic value in “half wilderness” areas that exist not far from exurban life. Besides asking what value do these places hold, my work explores how history, myth and cultural perspective affect how we understand landscapes.
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Driftless River is a portrait of the lower Wisconsin as it flows through the Driftless Area between Prairie du Sac and the Mississippi River.
Spirituality and Place explores the intersection of landscape, sacrality, and sense of place.
It questions how nature serves as a language which we use to understand the sacred.
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Positive Negative brings specimens of native prairie plants into the studio to examine their sculptural qualities and the tensions and synergies of opposites.
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Blue Driftless, my current work, extends the scope of Driftless River to its wider watershed, including the Kickapoo Valley and the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo, both of which are undergoing a process of rewilding.
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© 2022 by Richard Maciejewski
Rich Maciejewski