My materials are usually frail, ephemeral and dispossessed. I naturally gravitate towards materials that resonate with what is historically considered feminine or used within the realm of domestic labor. For the past couple of years the two themes I have been investigating are, as I have dubbed them: 1.) The Realm of the Domestic Feminine: the use of materials, means and literature of what has been classified as “women’s work” and 2.) The Sought-After Landscape both Natural and Constructed: My response to living in the woods, on a mesa, under a mesa and now currently in an old house in Old Town with funny little closets and secret little tunnels.

Most of the works are pastel, ink and spray paint on paper. The tactile nature of working with pastel, as pure dry pigment, reminds me of working with plants, flowers and soil. Amending and sifting, rubbing and building- all elements within the gardening process.

This series addresses how obsessively I fantasize and pore over garden and home magazines as they seduce me into a state of consumptive desire. Never will my living room look like that one in that glossy magazine...never will I have that kind of English Garden…. Never will I be able to create those beautiful canapes for my dinner guests and so on and so forth ad infinitum.

If only I could attain that kind of domestic perfection.

Ajean Lee Ryan