Art Beery
When "Elegance in Washington D.C." won "Best of Show" in the New/AM Open 2004 National Exhibition, I was absolutely delighted because this painting is the flagship of my series, "Elegance in American Cities," which consists of 36 American cities. I have worked on this series for 10 years!
In this series I have placed continuous curved shapes in the midst of our skyscrapers of today to show in the skylines of our American cities, the difference between the straight line architecture of today, when contrasted with the beauty of the continuous curve architecture that may be in our future!
I have painted this series to show the possiblity that these shapes could be buildings - buildings that would possess the same beauty as flowers. The beauty of curves and colors. With the open areas glassed in and with floors within, they would be beautiful and have great strength becuase it is much easier to crush a cube than it is to crush a ball!
I've been in pursuit of the beauty of the curve for the past forty-four years and after all those years, I have come to the conclusion that the most beautiful shapes possible are the Continuous Curved Shapes, that are "Mobius"!
By "Mobius" I mean they are shapes that have only one surface and most have just one edge. In other words, they have an outside and inside surface like all shapes, but somewhere the two surfaces meet. With a "Mobius" shape, there is in reality only one surface, and I find that the "Mobius" shapes are very harmonious and beautiful!