Based on poems by Wallace Stevens, John Keats, Stanley Kunitz and D.H. Lawrence, and using scientific graphics from the past and present, Oriole Farb Feshbach’s pastels and watercolors explore the elusive nature of light and refraction in astronomical and atmospheric phenomena such as solar flares, rainbows and the auroras.
“My images are responses to phrases and ideas about astronomical and natural phenomena that I find in poems and fiction in authors as diverse as Henry Thoreau, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Derek Walcott, Emily Dickinson, Barry Lopez and Elizabeth Bishop. I also gather science information from a range of scientists such as Descartes, Newton and Hubble. I work mostly with images found in the sky and oceans, such as auroras, rainbows, comets and icebergs. I juxtapose and integrate images to explore the complementary beauty of nature from two different zones. I use mostly two media: watercolor to capture and reinforce the qualities of water; pastel for particles in space.”