Nora Sturges

Nora Sturges paints narrative landscapes in several evocative series. Her most recent work depicts a night fallen world of arctic ruin, where the vestiges of a human presence seem to lie vacant and forlorn upon the ice. In some cases one wonders which is the more recent arrival, the people or the ice? They convey a haunting sense of the precariousness of life on the edges of habitability.

An earlier series called "Marco Polo's Travels" derives it's imagery from Italo Calvino's novel "Invisible Cities" in which a fictional Marco Polo describes the places he has traveled to Kubla Khan. In it she evokes medieval and Persian painting which was used to tell narratives to a largely illiterate populace. She crosses this approach with more modern ideas of tourism, exoticism and xenophobia.

In all her work a delicate and slightly primitive approach helps to create scenes that combine both the exotic and the mundane in a way that not only engages the imagination but demands imaginative participation from the viewer.
There are also two other series on her website and many more paintings in each:
pages.towson.edu/nsturges

Recent Work:

"Housing Estates"  2009  oil on MDF 8"x9"

 

"Platform"  2010  oil on MDF 8"x10"

"Observation"  2009  oil on MDF 9"x11.5"

From "Marco Polo's Travels":

 "Marco Polo Forced To Eat Moths"  2003  oil on panel 11"x10"

 This last piece may be one of my favorite titles of all time...

"Nothing Occurs Here That Is Worthy of Remark"  2004  oil on panel 5"x5.75"