SHAWN GOULD:

THE ART OF GETTING LOST

MARCH 30 THROUGH MAY 19

The Art of Getting Lost is the result of Shawn Gould’s multiple trips to the Punta Gorda Lighthouse on the remote stretch of coastal wilderness called the Lost Coast. This new body of work is due in large part to Gould receiving a Victor Thomas Jacoby Award from the Humboldt Area Foundation in 2021. It was the spark that he needed to return to a subject he began to explore decades ago. The Lost Coast Trail and Punta Gorda Lighthouse caught his interest on his first camping trip in 2002 and he has returned a number of times since. Over the years he had created a few paintings based on these trips, but inevitably got pulled away by other projects and commitments. Despite this, he always hoped to go back and continue what he had started. Who travels to an abandoned lighthouse in search of enlightenment you might ask? An artist who had to get lost to find new inspiration.

ANN SAVAGEAU:

GUARDIANS: SPIRITS OF PROTECTION

MARCH 16 THROUGH APRIL 27

Ann Savageau is a mixed-media artist and teacher whose career spans over 45 years. Her work focuses on the intersection of the natural and manmade worlds. It is in this space that she finds the most interesting issues, processes, and statements. She focuses on the natural materials and manmade detritus that are routinely discarded as worthless, combining, and transforming them into new entities that bear the marks of their origins, history and alteration. The underlying theme in Savageau’s work is the inherent worthiness of all matter and rejection of a hierarchy of values, and the urgent need to take the necessary steps to preserve our ecosystem.

Ann began creating the guardian spirits of protection series in 2018 after the death of her sole surviving child, as a way of coping with the profound loss of her three children. The project took 2 ½ years to complete; as Ann worked, she expanded the content to include protection from climate change, species extinction, the COVID pandemic, social injustice, and war. The seventeen life-size figures of animals and humans are composite beings fashioned from castoff materials, including driftwood, and found objects. The Guardians messages of loss, grief and healing are intended to inspire the viewer and it is Ann’s hope the element of community involvement will enrich and deepen the Guardians installation at the Morris Graves Museum of Art.