Wandering the Edge of the World
Corey Hardeman
Corey Hardeman is a visual artist based in Prince George, BC, whose work is inspired by looking closely at nature. In this recent body of work, she focuses on a chaotic tangle of organic matter found in the forest, including trees, water, birds’ nests, flowers and foliage.
Hardeman’s work is influenced by her training as a biologist. She is no stranger to the outdoors, and she positions her work as an examination of her place among living things. [1] She often paints her subjects up-close, and from within the domain of nature.
Rather than composing her paintings around a specific focal point, each element Hardeman paints is as important as the other. As a result, her paintings are dense and filled edge-to-edge with trees and flowers, each one a discovery worthy of inspiring wonder.
Hardeman often chooses to depict scenes that are curious or unclear, stating that she is interested in documenting changes that mark the edges of things. [2] Hindsight, for instance, embodies a point of view that could just as easily be beneath the water as above it. Similarly, in Postscript, it is unclear if we are looking at a forest or its reflection. The tangle of branches and flowers in Reminder, and Return, and the hazy moonlit woodland in Nocturne, suggest subjects that are more likely drawn from a dream than from lived reality.
The presence of water that appears in paintings like Edge of the World I and 2 is another curious element of Hardeman’s work. While water rising, falling, and flowing over the earth is part of a natural cycle, it can also signal a more ominous process. While any clear sign of threat, or disaster is absent, the inclusion of water in these paintings subtly communicates the artist’s concerns for the natural environment.
The edges of things: land and water, reality and dream, are all sites of change. These precarious points in between one state and another are where many of these paintings are rooted. The disorientating perspective and ambiguous narratives that result, easily accommodate different viewpoints. What one sees —rising tides, or the forest floor after a rainstorm— depends on one’s view of the natural world and an interpretation of its circumstances.
Hardeman’s paintings invite us to look closer at nature and see the wonder in even the smallest shrub, leaf, and flower. These simple, beautiful things are fleeting, and Hardeman shows us that, however ordinary, they are everything.
