Karey Kessler at Shift Gallery through March 2, 2019

Peggy Murphy

I woke in an unfamiliar land with a curious map at my side. The map ran edge to edge. I had no frame of reference as to what lie beyond its borders. I seemed to be in a free-floating nebulous place, stranded and undefined. Where on earth was I? But the map was tantalizing. It seduced me. The notion of “where” became irrelevant. It was enough to anticipate the many circuitous routes in this mysterious terrain. The map held cryptic mark and lines. Layers of transparent, pastel colors created subtle dimensions, and a subtle shimmer emanated from the surface. Words flew overhead (or was that just a voice I heard?) Somehow, I knew I had all the time in the world to get lost here.

Karey Kessler’s dreamy maps at Shift Gallery, set the imagination in motion. Kessler generously invites us into her personal contemplation of, in her words,” the environment, the expanse of geologic time, and the vastness of the cosmos and the world.”