Top to bottom: "Blue Salvia" and "Swiss Chard" by Bonnie Moreno.
In comparison, the works of John W. Hilton [Kingsport, Tenn.], Bonnie Moreno [Christiansburg, Va.] and Pat Pilchard [Boone, NC] strike a very different chord.
Hilton treats life on the farm with a sense of humor -- his work features images of roosters crowing at a plaster-cast ear; yet, he also reminds us of the daily toil that is farm life as well as its connections to the cyclical order of things in nature.
The plants depicted in Moreno's delicate and intimate watercolors are seen close-up in cropped views that create nearly abstract walls of brightly colored light; this light, which appears to emanate from within the pictures themselves, celebrates the feeling of a backyard garden on a brilliant summer afternoon.
Pilchard's photographs, which are rather large in format, also reflect on the cyclical nature of life, albeit more as memento than celebrations; by using a shallow depth-of-field focus and special lighting, the dried leaves and flowers she isolates against black backgrounds give the impression that they are suspended in a place where memories of things past have the power to hold both time and tide at bay.
