courtney adair applequist

As universal as the need for air and water, the concept of Mother is equally inevitable and invisible.  She  has the power and potential to be life-giving, enveloping, rejuvenative, invasive, bolstering, nurturing, destructive,  elusive.  She is both her own and not.  A being made of reflections, connections and divisions, just as you are. She is the portal of your existence, formed from a network of other portals, that come from a network of theirs.  An endless system of connection: the collective and expansive (M)other.

As universal as the need for air and water, the concept of Mother is equally inevitable and invisible.  She  has the power and potential to be life-giving, enveloping, rejuvenative, invasive, bolstering, nurturing, destructive,  elusive.  She is both her own and not.  A being made of reflections, connections and divisions, just as you are. She is the portal of your existence, formed from a network of other portals, that come from a network of theirs.  An endless system of connection: the collective and expansive (M)other.

48x60in

Charcoal, acrylic on canvas

2024

Price Upon Request

Mother: touch point— point of contact between what poured into her and what is going out to them. A hub —either passive or active, sometimes violently so, of acknowledging & wrestling what comes in before transferring it out.  A vessel of seeds, blossoms and wounds that will flow straight through her womb, her breast, her hands, her mouth, her eyes, like water permeating.  How strong is her dam, to hold and see and heal the soil from which her children draw nourishment before planting them in it.  How strong is her dam to hold the poison she culls over time until it is inert, even as the seeds are germinating in her warmth.  Sacred garden.  Point of contact, of transmission.

We are made of division 

From our first cell, we keep splitting 

Leave who we are for new leaving

Dividing, dividing, dividing

~Jane LeCroy

Commissioned Digital Print on WallPaper

30x24in

Ink, charcoal, graphite on yupo

2023

Available, Adah Rose Gallery

40x40in

Oil on Canvas

2023

Available, Adah Rose Gallery

Bodies of Disregard

by Courtney Applequist & ~ICEbox Collective

Bodies of water have become, in our recent history, the site of the collision of the natural vs unnatural, scarcity vs abundance, sustainable practices vs our relationship with consumerism; they are a proxy to our struggle as society, presenting a moment of reckoning, where we are witness, perpetrator, and victim.

These ancient bodies hold the memory of our origins, evolution, and destruction, and simultaneously show us lessons of the wisdom of balance, which begs the question of why we treat them as dumpsites; why we regard nature as an endless source of resources, disregarding the sacred nature, as the oceans, lakes, and rivers have an intrinsic symbiotic relationship with all of us. Large bodies of water are the site of the imagination of the unknown and life we don’t comprehend. To accept and respect that which we cannot see, to learn to have empathy with every aspect as an essential part of human learning and the only way to survive as a species.

Bodies of Disregard, as a participatory artwork, explores the collapsing of western and indigenous imagery into a platform for exchange and interrogation of this present moment. Using imagery built with the visual language of “doodling”, the viewer is invited to engage with questions regarding our relationship with climate change and consumerism

on both macro and micro levels; institutional, systemic, and individual.

Courtney Applequist’s new show is a project done in a period of admiration, reciprocity and humanity in response to the culmination of events of 2020-21. In a departure from painting, the work includes wall-size drawings on repurposed cardboard, paper sculpture & augmented reality video integration.

“For the past eight months, I have been working on a collaborative social art project, Taxonomy of Breathing, that investigates our current societal moment through the lens of breath. Police brutality, smoke & wildfire, COVID attacking the lungs — breath connects them all; and in following the thread of breath through spiritual and healing practices, we discovered a platform of connection across cultural boundaries to listen and to heal.

"During the research for this project, I had the privilege of engaging in dialogue with a number of women, starting with the topic of 'breath,' leading to unexpected connections around transformational journeys. Through this process, I found that a window opened up into questions around my own art process; how these social structures, these '-isms,' (sexism, colonialism, consumerism) had in-formed and formed my self-perception and therefore my art practice. We are, as a society, in a moment of shifting landscapes and structures, socially, politically, institutionally, spiritually, and we are finding new footing. As an artist, I am privileged & challenged to reflect this exploration, both collective & personal, through a practice that encourages dialogue rather than statements.

"This exhibition is a manifestation of these explorations expressed through portraiture, bringing forward tensions of shifting societal landscapes by experimenting with materials and scale, challenging precepts of permanence & perception."

BLUE