Private Landscapes
Private Landscapes is from a series based on Megan Lightell's hometown of Coshocton, Ohio; a rural/farming community that is currently undergoing development. Like many communities in the US that are digging out from under economic uncertainty, Lightell's is in transition and in danger of short term gain at the expense of irreversible consequence. Lightell interviewed area land owners, mostly farmers, with long family ties and collected images from private property that is endangered by fracking. Private Landscapes is a "public" record of these "private" natural treasures that in some cases, escaped the notice of the landowners. Her aim, as a painter in the most basic and traditional senses, is to focus our attention to the natural subtlety around us and the resources that all of us as individuals draw from natural, undeveloped environments. Her canvases serve as quiet reminders of the time-honored themes surrounding our complicated symbiotic relationship to our natural environment and the need for being mindful of how important these sensibilities are to our very survival.
