Painting by Anne Austin Pearce
“Information comes to me primarily through a side door, in an ephemeral and second-hand way. I string together pieces of conversation collected from those who are informed or like to think they are. As I have listened to conversations about the addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the hum of voices has risen in crescendo like cicada songs at summer’s end.
The exterior of the building awes me. Its modern simplicity and walls of glass provide a space for daydreams. The lenses rising from the ground allow me to see nature more clearly, free of distraction. They seduce my imagination toward the fantastic—a visceral permission rarely given in a culture bent on managing perception.”
