Aqueduct: Dando Vida

"A long stretch of engineered water lying flat under the sky, as far as the eye can see, gives us a giddy sense of conquest. We admire human ingenuity.  We respect the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, percolation and run-off."  — Lucinda Parker

The five paintings that Lucinda Parker created for the U.S. Courthouse in Bakersfield, California, are about water: wild water, transported water, engineered water, pumped water, and irrigated water. These paintings are Parker's response to Mill Creek, which flows through the park just west of the courthouse, and to the mysterious and inventive systems of water throughout the arid west. In these paintings, Parker shows her love of the expressive gestures and strong shapes that inform both her abstract and landscape compositions. For Parker, the materiality of paint mimics the fluidity of water, with its drips and rhythmic energy.