SOME THINGS ARE TRUE

EXHIBITION DETAILS

The relationship between humans and nature is a frequently explored theme by artists. Uniquely, Some Things Are True, an exhibition featuring PNW artists Joe Batt and Nancy Watterson Scharf, asks us to consider our connection to the world from the animals’ point of view. Join us in The Arts Center’s Main Gallery and experience an enchanted space filled with lush landscapes, persevering plants, and hares who can accomplish anything.

Joe Batt‘s hares series is an ongoing exploration of innocence, endurance, and our relationships with each other, and with the natural world. His narrative pieces combine a dreamlike sensibility with stylized-naturalistic forms. Figures and mixed media are mainstays of my approach to clay sculpture. Batt hand-builds with stoneware clay and add colored pencils or pastels after the firing. Sometimes there is a smoke-firing step before color is added. As a result of experiences outside in recent years, bears and fish are starting to make appearances in the work, and he welcomes this challenge.

Nancy Watterson Scharf makes paintings about divergent perceptions of the familiar, and explores the perceptual limitations that make us ghosts to one another. For over a decade, her work has focused on the humble and industrious plants and animals who share space and resources with her. “I think a lot about how I share my everyday life with nature, and I am curious about what the habitats I experience look like from the plants’ and animals’ point of view” Scharf says. “This exhibition is essentially a record of part of my journey into this mutual world where humans, plants and animals exist side by side and occupy each other’s reality.”