Elizabeth Holtry, Mount professor of visual art, will be featured in the 2018 issues of the periodical, New American Paintings, with her recent series of paintings, SALT, which was on exhibit in the Williams Gallery of the Delaplaine Fine Arts Center earlier this fall.
SALT explores the beauty and underlying fragility of the Bonneville Salt Flats in remote Northwestern Utah. The Bonneville Salt Flats
are a
30,000 acre expanse of hard, white salt crust on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake basin in Utah. The Salt Flats may be best known for the professional and amateur teams from around the world who come
there to compete for land speed records, and for the many automobile advertisements and motion pictures that have been filmed there. This remnant of an ancient saline lake, and one of the flattest places on
earth, is being imperiled by motor racing, nearby potash mining and climate change.
Natural processes continually transform the landscape of the Bonneville Salt Flats. When rain covers the ground, it causes the ground and the sky to visually merge. As temperatures rise, the water evaporates and reveals a glittery salt crust. Erosion carves new textures and alters the terrain. Professor Holtry’s paintings focus on the landscape’s ethereal visual effects. Some paintings juxtapose patterns in the crust with reflections of the sky in standing water. Other pieces depict cracks in the parched earth, halite formations or unsightly tire tracks. To emphasize the mystery of the place, she excludes the sky and mountains. Holtry’s aim is to foster environmental awareness and express her fascination with a landscape that is harsh, beautiful and vulnerable.
Commenting on the exhibit, Carolyn Ciccocioppo, C’20, said, "Professor Holtry's exhibition was an interesting and unique portrayal of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Her painting technique and style combined with her found halite effectively captured the beauty and grandeur of the salt flats in a way I had never seen before. Her work made me more aware of the effect that humans can have on the surrounding environment."
Holtry has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Maryland. She’s been teaching at the Mount since August 2001. To view more of Holtry’s works, visit her site at
www.elizabethholtry.com.
