Quake in Paradise: Echoes of Nepal
August 31 - September 30 2017
mainspace @ artspace
To the Nepalese people, the elephant is the spirit carrier. On April 25, 2015, Nepal experienced the most catastrophic earthquake of its history. Avalanches careened down Mt. Everest, terraced farms and livestock were decimated and ancient temples crumbled to dust, but the elephants remained.
Northwest Louisiana Artist M Douglas Walton was preparing to cross the Friendship Bridge into Tibet when the earth began to shake under him. August 31, 2017, Walton will bring his memories of that transformational experience and the beauty and light that he discovered to life through a spectacular exhibition of his paintings. The Friendship Bridge, a blue tarp village, rose petals placed carefully along a path by Nepalese children and the spirit carriers--the elephants--will all be powerfully illustrated through latex paint, vinyl, duct tape and tissue paper on Walton’s canvasses.
ARTIST BIO
After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture in 1965 from Oklahoma State University, Walton did graduate work at Oklahoma State University while on a teaching fellowship. After leaving OSU, he began working with Haas and Massey Associates in Shreveport, LA, and eventually found himself teaching at Louisiana Tech University as an Associate Professor of Architecture in 1972. While at Tech, he taught classes both in architecture and watercoloring. Since then, he has led countless workshops and classes about watercoloring, painting, and the arts in general.
Walton describes his experiences there amongst the natural disaster, recalling: “We found ourselves stranded on a remote slope amidst the Himalayan Mountains for 6 days and 5 nights. We had nothing except what was in our pockets. Within hours, more than 3000 Nepalese refugees were assembling a blue tarp village on that terraced hilltop. They too had nothing, but they gave us everything. Even during the turmoil, each morning the children would place rose petals on the steps to provide a path of beauty for the many footsteps of the day. I was forever changed, humbled, and enlightened in witnessing their humanity during the darkest hours.”
