From Cornfields to Cliffs and In Between: Daily Palette Artists Reimagine Iowa's Landscape

Since its launch in 2004, the Daily Palette at the University of Iowa has featured the work of over 3000 Iowa-connected artists, publishing their work online and encouraging a greater appreciation of the arts statewide.

In honor of its twelfth year, the Daily Palette is organizing a gallery exhibition at the Old Capitol Museum on the University's campus to celebrate two of Iowa's most important yet often under-appreciated features: its landscape and its artistic talent. From Cornfields to Cliffs and In Between: Daily Palette Artists Reimagine Iowa's Landscape is a juried exhibition that spotlights seven artists working in a variety of media who interpret Iowa's landscape and invite us to think about the state in new ways.

From Cornfields to Cliffs and In Between: Daily Palette Artists Reimagine Iowa's Landscape is on view at the Old Capitol Museum from Tuesday, April 26, 2016 to Sunday, June 12, 2016. This exhibition is made possible through the support of the following departments and organizations at the University of Iowa: the Old Capitol Museum, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, the Graduate College, and the School of Art & Art History.

ALEXIS C. DWYER
Forest and Prairie, serigraphy, 10" x 10", 2015

Alexis Dwyer is a printmaker, painter, land artist, and art educator currently working towards her MFA in Integrated Studio Arts at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa (anticipated May 2016).  She received her BFA in Photography and Printmaking at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri.  Her prints have been exhibited nationally in group, solo, and juried exhibitions, as well as internationally in Hong Kong.  In 2015 Alexis received the Focus: Artist Grant Award from Iowa State University and the Award of Excellence: Emerging Artist at Art Slam 2015 in Dubuque, Iowa.  She also participates in collaborative projects and art festivals, and she is the Vice President of the University Print Society at Iowa State University and a member of the Monotype Guild of New England.  Alexis's work was first published on the Daily Palette in 2016.

Forest and Prairie was created as part of a series of monoprints funded by a Focus Grant through Iowa State University.  By layering imagery, this series explores the major elements of the ecosystem of Iowa, including forest, prairie, water, soil, and urban and agricultural areas.

My work is a response to my experiences in the outdoors.  I am struck by the interconnections of all life on this planet.  I work to understand and interpret the energy and life found within an ecosystem with the use of color, shape, and pattern.  I hope to give the viewer a deeper sense of the wonder that can be felt in nature.

I feel that the process of printmaking reflects the processes of the natural world.  Rain and wind weathering the earth is reflected in the process of carving or etching away a plate.  The ability to add and change the layering of plates is similar to the ebb of life and energy within an environment.  -- Alexis Dwyer

Alexis C. Dwyer's website