Will Eskridge: Desserted Deserts and Beach Bumz

Like Fructose Encounters of the Third Kind, concepts of alien abduction, the afterlife, and childhood memories are all conjured in Desserted Deserts and Beach Bumz. These paintings of landscapes and offbeat animals including bats, opossums, and raccoons help bring solace to my new life without my father. He was a veterinarian with an affinity for the downtrodden, giving me my own impetus to celebrate the kicked-to-the-curb animals. To be sure, the motley crew of animals is juxtaposed with fun-loving late-night desserts hovering above the vast, color-stricken landscape.

Desserted Deserts is a celebration of the American desert, which my father took my family to see a handful of times. These works are a celebration of my father’s humor, those wonderful trips we took, and my own surreal sense of being a loner, as I navigate these new waters without him.

When: March 8 – April 13
Where: Owen Gallery