By Cameron Mellin
To the untrained eye, the subject is the same: a birch tree, its branches often bare and hung over the river banks; the sun’s light or lack thereof dancing off the rippled waters of the Potomac. And you wouldn’t be wrong to assume so. The tree and its backdrop of river, cloud and sun is the focal point of many a painting featured at the “Potomac Skies” exhibit in downtown Alexandria. But to the artist, and to the audience that truly witnesses Maremi Andreozzi’s work, the differences, be they shifts in season, emotion or recognition of a beauty often overlooked, are clear as day.
“This was very much a coming-home series for me,” Andreozzi says. “Those moments of the sky’s change in color, from sunrise to sunset, are pivotal moments in our day.” Bringing such instances and the simplistic beauty of the Virginia sky’s changing clouds and color palette to our attention is a priority of Andreozzi’s “Potomac Skies.”
Returning from Guam in 2010, Andreozzi was inspired by the relationship between the sky and sun over the river as it runs parallel to the George Washington Parkway. “It seems so mundane, but when you really look at it …you find the beauty.” It’s an ethereal landscape even she took for granted, stating: “I don’t think I really appreciated the Potomac [before], but we would go to Founder’s Park all the time. [Potomac Skies] is this re-appreciation of the light and surroundings around us.”
It is this appreciation that makes “Potomac Skies” so powerful. What you see is a landscape all too familiar, yet what you feel is adoration for the natural beauty of a region too easily forgotten when caught in the fray of rush-hour traffic. To Andreozzi the exhibit centers around concentration, forcing the audience to halt and truly “look at the landscape, which is not always an easy thing to do.” However through her use of vertical composition, Andreozzi can“selectively choose what I want the viewer to look and focus on,” which encourages the observer to admire a seasonal terrain always in flux. This “creates a very dramatic moment” according to the artist and ignites an audience’s otherwise dormant awe of the region’s splendor.
Requiring over a year and a half of research and photography, “Potomac Skies” is a reflection of both the process of the seasons and of Andreozzi, who states: “I approach my art in a very scientific manner, but on the canvas …the process is impulsive. I trust my gut and see what happens.” The willingness to trust her artistry has resulted in a portrayal of an emotional landscape as well as a physical one. Each piece possesses a distinct feeling unique to Andreozzi because “painting allows me to manipulate the image, to create my own world.”
And perhaps that is the grandeur of “Potomac Skies,” for in the work one discovers an ability to mesh both the actual image and the emotion attached. The audience drawn into the ever-changing world of an artist whose emotions, like our own, rise to peaks and dip into valleys over time. How we perceive our world is ephemeral, her beauty acknowledged or forgotten depending on the day, yet that same beauty, of a blue sky sprinkled white and grey with clouds, is ever-present—necessitating only our notice to exist.
Exhibition runs through July 6.
The Art League Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center: 105 N. Union St., Alexandria
Price: Free
