Kris Grenier: And So We Are Found

The Westheimer Gallery is thrilled to present Kris Grenier and her solo show And So We Are Found for our September 2023 Exhibition.

And So We Are Found runs September 8 – 30, 2023, open Thursdays and Fridays 3-7PM, Saturdays 10AM – 2PM, or by appointment.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
As a backpacker and ultramarathoner, Kris Grenier explores the world on foot. Her travels have taken her from the hills of Georgia to the peaks of New England and from Death Valley to Mount Whitney, the top of the contiguous United States. After returning home to her family’s small farm in central Kentucky, Grenier records her memories in two-dimensional wool feltings to share with others the wild places she loves. Grenier has enjoyed the opportunity to share her art and passion for public lands at regional art shows, where her award-winning work has been praised for its originality and authenticity.

ABOUT THE SHOW:  The American West of our collective national imagination is rivaled only in size and grandeur by the West itself. From the essays of John Muir to the photographs of Ansel Adams, 19th and 20th century writers and artists explored the rugged landscapes of the West and shared their impressions with the public, inviting new Americans to view with awe mountains, rivers, and canyons that indigenous peoples have lived and worshipped in for millennia.

This collection of feltings seeks not only to continue that tradition but also to offer a response to a quote by writer and activist Terry Tempest Williams, who declared,

“If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide and so we are found.”

In the high deserts of the West, there are no dark recesses in the harsh mid-day light. There are no sheltering trees to block the sun or break the wind. One is exposed and opened, ground by the sand and smoothed by the wind—as I’ve learned while hiking alone in the vast western backcountry.

While I’m most at home in the verdant Appalachian woods, I’ve backpacked thousands of miles along the Pacific Crest, Colorado, and Arizona Trails. These hikes have been characterized by long water carries between questionable water sources, mid-day naps in scant patches of shade, hours of roaring wind—and panoramic landscapes so expansive I felt as though my eyes couldn’t open wide enough to take them all in.

And So We Are Found celebrates the majesty of the West, the introspection that pilgrimages there have inspired in me, and the endurance of the diverse and multi-faceted West as a national symbol.     -Kris Grenier