The work in this show represents the evolution of a recurring theme in my work: the precious evolution of our comparatively microscopic planet and its place in the vast universe. Exploring themes of Time, Evolution, and Species, the images in the different series exhibited in this show suggest how we humans could choose not to separate ourselves from the natural world around us. They explore death, time and scale and the ways we limit our perception by alternately owning, fearing, controlling, destroying and demeaning other species and the spaces we inhabit.

Most humans have trouble thinking about death. In these collage watercolor paintings, evolving and decomposing human female figures move among fish and undersea life. Their representation suggests joy, freedom, humor and fear at once. These can be ways to approach our continuing evolution over eons. We came from the sea—as the tides rise we may well find ourselves back in it again. This return could be a joyous reuniting with our biological history and the other creatures we know less about than we think we do, or it could be filled with terror. This art work suggests that it is our choice how we choose to proceed.

Though it is necessary to try, we may not be able to change much of the destruction our own evolution has created. We do have a choice about how we perceive the change and move forward. Embracing the unique spirit and intelligences of other creatures and seeing them as equals may be part of our happiness and salvation, rather than holding onto an archaic, pyramidal view of human superiority, with earth and the myriad life and elements it includes beneath us, and ours to use, subdue and exploit.

The images in this show are made by first pouring and manipulating a background using diluted Daniel Smith Watercolor onto 100% rag paper. As the paint dries, I look for meaning in the shapes that are revealed, figures hidden in the swirls of paint, like creatures emerging from the primeval ooze. Sometimes these do not appear to me for weeks, but when they do I work to bring them out of the paint and define them further using more paint, collage papers and pastel and other pencils. It feels like an alchemical process, like creation, and yes, like evolution.

- Laura Clark