The Geologic Art of Eder and Kollasch - A Portfolio

The Geologic Art of Eder and Kollasch

In an edition devoted to the natural sciences and their complex interrelationships, the meaning of environment, and how we succeed or fail to communicate the value and fragility of what is entrusted to us, why include "geologic art"? In a word: enrichment. A greater appreciation for this earth we live on. Seeing our environment in a somewhat new and different way-space, color, form-we may hope to uncover hitherto hidden meanings, to understand more profoundly, and, ultimately, to gain a greater sensitivity to our land and our relationship to it. Artist Sheila Kollasch of Phoenix strives to present an intimate view of the landscape. "I like to crawl around the cracks and crevices, exploring the secluded places and the varied textures hidden there. My vision has been transferred from the vast horizon down to the pebbles and leaves at my feet. Rocks and plants become individuals and take on personality.

"I am strongly drawn also to water and awed by its power. Rocks and pebbles lodged in cracks or between larger boulders along a riverbank, boulders caught high in a slot canyon or in the crotch of a creekside tree speak to me of the force of moving water.

"For now, my images are close-up views. But someday I will paint the larger scene again. When that time comes, I will be seeing this landscape with wiser, more knowledgeable eyes."

Tempe artist Jim Eder's work has been called "photorealism." He is a painter of rock forms, and his favorite area is the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. "I have of necessity become an amateur geologist," he says. "For me it is not enough just to 'see' a rock formation. I must know its origins and the ongoing erosional forces that are changing it.

"As I spend more time hiking and backpacking, my sensitivity to and understanding of deserts and canyons

grow, along with my fascination and appreciation of the overpowering intensity of sun and sky.

"The Grand Canyon is truly a collection of superlatives. The feelings evoked by this spatial vastness are made yet more overpowering by the knowledge that the time spans over which it was formed reach into the millions of years, and the forces that molded it can make solid rock turn into hot putty.

"Someday I may shift the emphasis in my painting. But, as yet, I have not exhausted the possibilities inherent in Arizona's marvelous geology."

Editor's note: Works by Jim Eder and Sheila Kollasch are currently being shown in a traveling exhibit sponsored by the Arizona Commission on the Arts entitled "Arizona Landscapes: Prints, Pastels, and Paintings."