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Each painting in the series Postcards from Monera represents a postcard sent by an imaginary couple who are on vacation in the Kingdom of Monera. Where is Monera? Actually, it is not a place at all but is, rather, one of the five kingdoms of living organisms in the Linnaean classification system. The four other kingdoms are Protista, Fungi, Plantea, and Animalia. Under this system, living organisms are classified according to their cell structure and methods of nutrition, locomotion, and reproduction. Monerans are single-cell creatures that inhabit the acidic environments around hot sulfur springs and other places of general inhospitality to humans. They are the smallest, most primitive and most abundant creatures on earth. Our human tourists are often puzzled, fascinated, sometimes frightened by what they see in the microbial Kingdom of Monera. Its culture and customs are different from ours, but not altogether unfamiliar. And like most tourists to foreign lands, learning about the place they are visiting likewise teaches them about the place they come from. The methods used to create these paintings parallel the travel experience. Automotive lacquer and other industrial paints are combined with acetone and applied to clay-coated panels in multiple layers. A completed painting occurs when an image is unearthed that was not expected from the outset, yet is strangely believable. This may happen with only a few layers of paint or it may require many layers applied over several days. Thus, the method of painting becomes a vehicle to the imagination - point of departure predetermined, destination unknown.
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