A Super Natural Experience: The Art of Cheryl Maeder

Cheryl Maeder has stated that her art, at its core is about connection; to the environment, to the self, to each other, and with all life forms. The artist indeed manifests a tangible connectiveness between nature, the optical realm of an artwork and in turn the viewer of the work. She does this through a methodology of performing ephemeral yet powerful interventions in a landscape. It is a time-consuming process that involves location scouting, multiple levels of planning, on-site trials and errors with her eco-friendly materials, and lots of shooting, whilst hoping for the weather to cooperate and enhance her activities. All of this so she can capture a split second of time where all the elements come together in an aesthetically gorgeous photograph or short film.

To create works for her Super Natural series, Maeder chooses a specific environmental scene and taps into the frequencies of weather by releasing a burst of bright primary color (she keeps the material a mystery) that rides the air, creating effects that exist in real time for only a few moments as wind and gravity quickly moves, blows and then dissipates the color. During the brevity of their flight, these clouds of color coalesce, with changing density and opaqueness morph into flowing shapes. The effect introduces artistically formal elements into the compositions, resulting in a connective collaboration with nature.

These aesthetic additions to a landscape echo and then heighten similar qualities of artful elements and principles that nature creates on its own, but most often we take for granted as we live our daily lives. In real life, it takes purposeful looking to get to the place of seeing, and feeling, a deeper appreciation of what nature provides us.  Through her art, Maeder makes visible the powerful energies at play on our planet, unseen by the naked eye, yet internally sensed when we are in a deeply felt state of the wonder of nature. 

The artist’s photographs, short films and installations present the observer with a feeling that they are witnessing something profound, perhaps even from the beyond. And the stunning natural landscape we are beholding somehow feels even more phenomenal, as if a supernatural experience attuned us to what we already know deep inside, if only we would let the connectiveness of the universe be more present in our lives.

By Kara Walker Tomé, Independent Arts Consultant, Curator and Writer, Instagram @karacuratortome

ART REVIEW

“ Cheryl Maeder utilizes her camera’s technology as a precision instrument to replace the traditional tools of an artist’s studio, such as brushes and paint. She takes her inspiration from the great color field painters Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Mark Rothko and Morris Louis, as well as others who pioneered abstraction saturated with color. Ms. Maeder travels a different road, cleverly and diligently mapping out her own highly idiosyncratic, dreamy and purposely out-of-focus subjects that are often found on the beach.  Her attraction to the edge of the ocean allows her the perfect stage set, which often is equally divided between the sand, the water and the sky. Once she has surveyed her surroundings for bits and pieces of color, often borrowed from a beach umbrella, a handsome sunset or an unrecognizable group of swimmers frolicking in the surf, Maeder waits patiently for just the perfect moment before initiating a split second snap of her lens. What makes this artist’s works so compelling is that her compositions are unique, complex, and have very little in common with others who are exploring the delicate balance between realism and washed out abstraction. The recognition that Maeder’s work is currently enjoying literally around the globe is well-earned, and she seems to be just at the mid-point of a promising, brilliant career.”  

-Bruce Helander, Artist/Curator & Writer for Huffington Post and Art News Magazines.