'Fragmented Landscape' At Green Street Arts Center

A boundary exists between man and nature, and sometimes the boundaries cross over. Usually, it's man crossing over into nature. When man does this, nature is permanently altered.

Michelle Podgorski likes to inspect the intersections of man and nature and turn them into artworks. An exhibit of 11 of her large-scale watercolors are on exhibit now at Green Street Arts Center in Middletown.

It's the subtle interactions that interest her the most. "I live near the Katawba River, which is polluted," said Podgorski, who now lives in Lowell, N.C., but is a native of Rocky Hill and a graduate of Hartford Art School. "When the river floods, water goes into the holes in the trees, and the chemicals in the river eat the trees from the inside out."

Two of the artworks feature deteriorating trees. In addition to watercolor, they are enhanced by thin slivers of bark. Podgorski finds bits of bark fallen from trees and slices them with a razor until they are almost as thin as a layer of paint. "Bark grows in really thin cellular layers, and I try to replicate that in the way I paint," she said.

Podgorski also is interested in how nature affects itself, and uses negative space creatively to show thow the death of one organism often gives life to another. Fungus climbs up a tree that isn't there. Moss covers an invisible tree stump.

"People destroy nature and nature destroys itself," she said. "It's a constant cycle."

FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPE will be at Green Street Arts Center of Wesleyan University, 51 Green St. in Middletown, until June 26. An opening reception will be held Thursday, June 5, from 5 to 8 p.m. Podgorski will present a talk on Friday, June 6, at 12:15 p.m. Information: 860-685-7860.

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'Fragmented Landscape' At Green Street Arts Center