Animals Don't Take Vows: Tortuga

Anne Austin Pearce, artist

born 1968

Animals Don't Take Vows: Tortuga, 2012

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: ink; acrylic; board

Credit line: Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 2013.0036

Not on display

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

The Power of Place: KU Alumni Artists

This painting reflects Anne Austin Pearce’s memories of coastal Mexico, where she was struck by the contrast between the organic rhythms of nature and the organized structure of civilization. The word tortuga in the title can refer to either an island off the coast of Mexico or the Spanish word for turtle.
Pearce states:
“While in Mexico for the first time, I was afforded a most private and magical opportunity to observe a green turtle emerging from the moonlit sea, climbing her ancestral beach, laced with phosphorescent matter and digging a nest in the middle of the night. This trip was led by a scientist and turtle expert; we did not disrupt her process. Seeing the eggs drop from her body into the vast hole transfixed me. It was especially difficult knowing how few of these 120 would make it back to the sea, but the few that make it carry on and for that I am delighted. This trip and others to remote natural spaces continue to inform my work. The utter resilience and fragility of the natural world and the necessity of the artist/literary/scientific world continue to work as one to preserve our magical, valuable spaces on the planet.”

The Power of Place: KU Alumni Artists

Exhibition Label:
“Holding Pattern: New Works at the Spencer Museum,” Sep-2014, Susan Earle and Cassandra Mesick
This biomorphic diptych reflects artist Anne Austin Pearce’s memories of coastal Mexico, where she would stroll along white-sand beaches, marvel at the lifecycle of sea turtles emerging from the ocean, and admire the monumental architecture at the ancient Maya city of Tulum looming above on nearby bluffs. The juxtaposition of the organic rhythms of nature, exemplified by the sea turtles, with the organized structure of civilization, embodied by the Maya ruins of Tulum, inspired this work. Intended to prompt therapeutic reflection, the painting illuminates the tension in today’s world between instinctive, emotional life and the rationality of social constructs-a dichotomy reinforced by its playful title, Animals Don’t Take Vows.