Communication Attempt #8 (Rock and Puddle)

Artist: Ashley Eliza Williams Communication Attempt #8 (Rock and Puddle) Oil on Panel and clay bowl5" x 7" When I walk in nature, I explore the insides of things: the furtive organisms found under rocks, the fungi living between tree roots, and the bright patterns of insect eggs within a rotting branch. I’m fascinated by interior stories: the vein of history in a rock that describes an ancient disturbance, or an irregular tree ring that indicates solar activity or human impact. This work is from a series of “communication attempts.” Relationship between paintings, between objects, and between the work and the viewer are inspired by interspecies communication, relationships between living and non-living things, and a desire to mitigate ecological and human loneliness. How fully can we understand a cloud, a tree, or a rock? Can we develop a vocabulary that enables us to do that? What does our desire to engage with the non-human tell us about ourselves? My central goal as an artist is