Russ Havard Landscape painting tends to draw on both tradition and symbolism. I use landscape to symbolize growth through volatility and to convey beauty within desolation. Using materials such as watercolor, paper, and wood, the end result is not exactly traditional. With my framed works, I isolate the subject matter with a narrow window, making the frame a sculptural element. This extreme focal point creates a kind of quiet and peaceful quality. The constructed landscapes came from working in my Dad’s upholstery shop. From an early age I learned how to use hand tools and work with different materials, uncovering and covering things. Using wood, paint, paper, and razor, I create images and patterns until they are de facto collages. I tend to think of the work as hybrids between many interests such as: traditional/modern, painting/sculpture, realism/abstraction, fragile/prominent, and rural/cosmopolitan. The process is an endless series of painting, cutting, and re-configuring, where scenes become isolated moments on the horizon.