Arizona State University Art Museum: New American City: Artists Look Forward September 9th, 2006 - January 27th, 2007

Arizona State University Art Museum: New American City: Artists Look ForwardSeptember 9th, 2006 - January 27th, 2007"It's a Cowboy State by Carrie Marill is a map of sorts to smaller works painted directly on the walls throughout the ASU Art Museum. Dr. Patricia Gober, who wrote the catalog essay for this exhibition, has written that there are no built monuments in Phoenix. No arch or needle or statue that we can all agree upon. With no agreed upon monuments, Marill finds what she considers her own personal monuments as she drives around the city.Strangely enough, the artist explains that the concept for this project came from traffic school. In her words: The instructor explained that Arizona had its own set of traffic laws unique to the area, to which he perfectly attributed to living in "a cowboy state." In the years I have lived here, that phrase has come to epitomize much of my experience in the great State of Arizona.When I moved to Phoenix from the Bay Area, I noticed how much of my travel was limited to the freeway and for that reason knew little of the surrounding areas. I started diverting my routes and discovered a unique character of Phoenix hidden from usual traveled highways. Throughout the older parts of this spanning metropolis there lies a "no-holds-barred" sensibility, where experimentation with architecture and signage is embraced. I am taken by the modernism used in these utilitarian structures, which combine to invent a futuristic desert design of some lost past... I have attempted to collect and interpret some of the exceptional locations I find characterize the spirit of Phoenix.Marill paints in flat acrylic colors and includes only the important details, stripping the buildings of their surroundings. They are reduced to their essence, emphasizing their unique and often quirky architecture. Her installation becomes a highly personal tour of a city and she invites you to take the tour by finding all ten paintings (and some additional surprises) throughout the Museum. In a city that is criticized for its sameness in terms of architecture and development, these buildings suggest a history that is rich and complex."from New American City: Artists Look Forward, September 9, 2006 - January 27, 2007, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona, Curated by Heather Sealy Lineberry and John D. Spiak