Richard Metz
Elderly Oak Leaf, 2010
Egg tempera, damar, soil, pigment and gum arabic
20" x 16"

Artist Statement
Old Brown Leaf is from a series of leaf/face paintings done with experimental techniques. The concept was to push, in an intuitive way, a closeness with the land, the soil, and the flora.
This is done both with the image, a combination of a dried oak leaf, taken from the Wissahickon watershed, where I live and a human face, as suggested by the leaf form. This was also done with the medium, in which I created my own paint with both the soil where I was living, and also natural pigments and natural mediums like gum arabic and damar.
The resulting piece is intended to evoke an intensity of living, an expressive emotion from this strange creature that may physically exist somewhere, but certainly does inside me.

Artist Bio

Richard Metz is a 65 year old artist, writer, husband, father, environmentalist, and former art teacher. He has a BFA from Tyler School of Art and an MFA from Maine College of Art. He has been making work and showing in the Philadelphia area for 40 years. He has worked in a range of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance art, costumes, and ephemeral outdoor painted installations. He has been selected for many art residencies around the country. His art work has appeared in almost a dozen literary magazines. Recently, he published a book of poems and paintings titled " A murder of Crows".
Richard has worked with Carl Cellini and Mikel Elam as the Kindred Art Collaborative for 3 years.

www.mistermetz.com

@thembones2

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