Mirrors, Messages, and Manifestations Recent work by
Rusty Farrington
My latest body of work explores the nature of place—its intersections of memory and imagination, of feeling and idea. The spiritual quality of “place”—literally, as topographical location and figuratively, as a meditational state—is an essential element of these pieces. The specifics of locale have become less important to me than the distillation of stories or ideas into the archetype, the abstract, and the transcendent; creating analogies for something ancient, something that carries layers of form and idea—like the space between the concrete and the ephemeral. My subject matter focuses on archaeological locations, the landscapes of religious texts and ancient legend, where I seek intersections of history and myth, of the spiritual and physical, of the archetypal and transcendent. I imagine what those places and times would have felt like. My works are like mirrors we look into—mirrors that are fragmented and broken, simultaneously refracting and reflecting, colored with the cultural biases of generations of people who collect, write, make art, music, or who tell stories through the magic of theater or film. The works are therefore manifestations of many realities, of many histories, of the imaginations that bind our cultures, sub-cultures, and pasts into who we are, transcending the ages to give us the opportunity to peer into the vastness of what makes us human.
Rusty Farrington
My latest body of work explores the nature of place—its intersections of memory and imagination, of feeling and idea. The spiritual quality of “place”—literally, as topographical location and figuratively, as a meditational state—is an essential element of these pieces. The specifics of locale have become less important to me than the distillation of stories or ideas into the archetype, the abstract, and the transcendent; creating analogies for something ancient, something that carries layers of form and idea—like the space between the concrete and the ephemeral. My subject matter focuses on archaeological locations, the landscapes of religious texts and ancient legend, where I seek intersections of history and myth, of the spiritual and physical, of the archetypal and transcendent. I imagine what those places and times would have felt like. My works are like mirrors we look into—mirrors that are fragmented and broken, simultaneously refracting and reflecting, colored with the cultural biases of generations of people who collect, write, make art, music, or who tell stories through the magic of theater or film. The works are therefore manifestations of many realities, of many histories, of the imaginations that bind our cultures, sub-cultures, and pasts into who we are, transcending the ages to give us the opportunity to peer into the vastness of what makes us human.
Rusty Farrington Bio
I grew up in southeast Iowa, intensely exploring the hills and plains, timbers and fields of that landscape. Summer days, were full of trips out of town to explore timberlands, fish, hunt arrowheads, or just play in the creek near my home town. After high school I attended the University of Iowa, majoring in art after an initial dalliance into engineering. I graduated with a ba in 1984, and immediately pursued a master’s degree. I taught elementary and junior high art for four years (while working on my graduate degree) before moving to northwest Iowa in 1988. I finished my master’s in 1989, driving weekly to Iowa City, and teaching days at Iowa Central Community College. I retired from teaching full time at Iowa Central in 2018. I still teach a few classes there. I currently live in Rockwell City where I have converted an old hardware store downtown into a studio and workshop (Prairie’s Edge Studios).
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