This Delta Daydreams series explores the time Reese spent in the Mississippi Delta while in residency at JX Farms. A time spent surrounded by a dark, haunting nature, seemingly suspended in time, and drenched in water inspired an investigation of body and landscape.

A delta is defined by its relationship with water. Water, therefore, plays a major role in the production of this series; each painting begins with a complete saturation of the canvas with water. Layers of puddled water allows pigment to simultaneously pool and flow––only partly manipulated––across the surface of the canvas. For this reason, water embraces a contradictory existence and becomes a symbol of freedom and control, nourishment and destruction all in one.

Manipulation of each material creates a variety of textures and explores expression through color, line, and form–generating familiar senses of topographical expressions that place the viewer somewhere and nowhere all at once, like a daydream. The paradoxical vertical orientation of each painting is disorienting and distorts our understanding of ‘scape’. Colors evoke a sense of haunting timelessness; exploring an environment mysteriously suspended in time.

Reese’s observations are a particular confluence of quiet distilled down forms and bold textures that, when thoughtfully constructed, the paintings become narrative. A tale of the battle between progress and destruction, her work explores the complex dichotomy between the human experience and our crumbling world.