ArtZone 461 Gallery is happy to announce "Road Trip" a new exhibition of paintings by gallery artist Heidi McDowell, photo-documenting her various car trips through the Western United States. 

In her paintings McDowell explores our contemporary relationship to the landscape as shaped by digital media and car culture.  She incorporates digital artifacts, dust on a lens, car window reflections and other 'aberrations' found in photographic source materials, thus celebrating the way these otherwise unwanted mistakes highlight the colors and textures of the natural world.

Her goal is not solely to reproduce photographs. McDowell says, "Oil painting has its own ‘artifacts’ and unpredictable process-related effects that bring more life to the image.  Rough painterly marks are often enough to indicate detail.  Combined, the digital and painterly effects clarify and enhance the experience of seeing, allowing us to slow down and take a longer look."

Mc Dowell received her BA in Architecture and Art form Rice University, in Houston, Texas, in 1997.  She worked as an Architect in NY city and the Bay Area, before focusing in her Fine Arts career. This is her second solo show at ArtZone.