IN THIS LIFE: REFLECTIONS ON WAR AND POLITICS

In This Life is an exhibition with a collection of paintings on the subject of war and politics. You may visit this exhibition in the Fort Collins Museum Of Contemporary Arts between September 25, 2007 and December 08, 2007. The three featured artists in this exhibition are Felipe Echevarria, Miguel Tio, and Kumiko S Mckee. Through their paintings, these three artists reflect on the events of 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The experience of war and destruction as a component of the human condition is said to be central to Echevarria's work. In his work titled My God Is Not Your God, he paints a wide and calm blue sky with bombs falling down in it. Taking a different approach is Miguel Tio who was born in the Dominican Republic and currently lives in New York City. He was living in New York City at the time of the attacks on the World Trade Center, which is where he drew his inspiration from to paint The Journey After. In this oil work he paints classical nude figures as angels with wings flying in a clear blue sky around the World Trade Center towers in a beautifully dynamic composition. Tio handles the human skin on the angels fantastically with such a sense of control and a knowledge of color pallette. His brush strokes are smooth and his representation of the World Trade Center is executed to perfection, which is why I made this painting my favorite pick in the museum's exhibition. Miguel Tio says he paints "not through eyes that are merely temporal, but through eyes which serve a higher purpose: as the windows of the soul". Echevarria, Tio, and McKee together show in their works political issues that are a reality to us all. The three artists all seem to understand that humanity is capable of dangerous actions, such as destruction, war and revenge.