Leigh Yardley – PROSPECT AND REFUGE
Experience this work in the Piney Woods.
Prospect and Refuge in landscape are perceived as spaces that represent how safe an environment feels. Prospect in this respect is the discerned ability to see without being seen, prospect provides the opportunity to obtain information. Refuge is that safe place in the landscape that occupants seek for shelter and protection. The quotes by Mariah Danu and Albert Einstein represent for me those two ideas of what one can experience in the space of an environment. Einstein the prospect of greater understanding and Danu takes refuge in the space of a forest. These shrouds of cheesecloth that are semi-transparent obscure what is part of a landscape. Sometimes an interruption will refocus our attention on something that may go unnoticed is this a space of Refuge or Prospect? What do you now notice, what does the environment of Stone Quarry represent to you? I have provided paper and pencils with prompts to think about the space you occupy. Please feel free to draw or write about what you see, hear, or feel about the space of this landscape. If you wish to leave your work in the box your work will be collected, and a book will be created documenting time shared in this space.
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Leigh Yardley creates work in paint and installation situating herself as a part of the system of landscape. Currently Yardley will have an installation at Stone Quarry Art Park September 15-October 15. Prospect and Refuge, we perceive these spaces as how safe an environment feels. Prospect in this respect is the perceived ability to see without being seen, prospect provides the opportunity to obtain information. Refuge is that safe place in the landscape that occupants seek for shelter and protection. Her installations Cazenovia College Purlieu, Water Improv at Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute Biennial, created a sense of place with texture and movement they were part of a long-term project Convergence of Water. A series of interactions in the three watersheds that converge in Madison County. In 2018 Leigh was awarded the New York State Chancellors Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching at Morrisville State College where she has taught Visual Arts since 2000. She has actively pursued community-based projects receiving NYSCA Decentralization grants and facilitating the organization of several arts programs. She participated in the NYFA MARK program and has been a NYFA Statewide Artist Consultant. As a Visiting Teaching Artist for CNY Aesthetic Education Program she trained with the Lincoln Center Teaching Artist Mentoring Project and Advance Seminar for Teaching Artist at the Guggenheim. Yardley received her MFA from Lesley University, College of Art and Design and has exhibited widely since 1994, she resides in Hubbardsville NY with her husband Bruce Moseley.