The following was submitted by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts:
New works by artist Molly Kugler Dickinson will be on exhibit through June 7, 2020, at the Block Island State Airport Gallery. The Gallery presents the work of contemporary Rhode Island artists in quarterly exhibitions.
Dickinson’s “Fabricated Landscapes” exhibition of recent work features plein-air oil paintings that are a direct response to the moment in the premier coup tradition. Dickinson said she is interested in landscapes that reflect the impact of human activity; thus the term “fabricated” as her chosen locations are no longer in their raw, unaltered state.
The series, painted in Middletown, Maine, and Provincetown, feature landscapes where this intersection of nature and human activity is evident. Examples: the Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge, whose sweeping vistas are the result of the land having been used for grazing, a military station and a garbage dump prior to becoming a park; Pemaquid, Maine, where the pine forest is unnaturally uniform due to having been clear-cut then subsequently re-growing all at one time; and the Cape Cod National Seashore, whose sweeping, fascinating dunes and vistas are the result