Pyramiden
are bobbing heads with big brown eyes and
asymmetrical broken tusks. Deft swimmers, they are
also efficient eaters – walruses suck mollusks out of
their shells, turning them inside out with their
powerful suction. They can locate and eat a shellfish
in about 6 seconds, which means they can eat quite a
few mollusks in one dive.
The mounds of walruses form a curious organic
brown shape beneath the severe, pointed rock and ice
formations that poke angularly into the sky. Steep,
white mountains revealing black outcroppings
resemble an inverted Robert Motherwell painting.
Already abstracted, it’s a rare and imposing sight.
I am working on paintings of the water now.
Normally I abstract representational subject matter.
How do I abstract an already abstracted waterscape?
The ‘line’ between representational and abstract
imagery has already been set on the side of
abstraction before I begin. I am excited about these
aesthetic explorations. I suspect my paintings of the
Arctic Ocean will be more abstract than my paintings
of the other oceans. But who knows? Maybe they will
capture the sense of wonder and surprise I
experienced in a land peculiar that is both abstract
and a landscape at the same time.
Danielle Eubank is a painter interested in
exploring the relationship between abstraction and
realism. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner
Foundation Grant 2014-15.
In addition to her studio practice, Ms. Eubank
is an expedition artist. She sailed aboard the
barquentine tall ship, The Antigua, on an
expedition to the High Arctic in Autumn 2014. She
was an Expedition Artist on the Phoenicia, a
replica 600 B.C. Phoenician vessel that
circumnavigated Africa and was the Expedition
Artist on the Borobudur Ship, a replica of an 8th
century Indonesian boat that sailed around the
African continent.
She has painted the Henley Royal Regatta
since 2011. A short documentary film about her
work premiered at the Newport Beach Film
Festival in 2012.
www.danielleeubank.com