Adam de Boer

Adam is an avid surfer, and this painting is about a winter storm that the artist experienced on the beach in Southern California. The day it happened, the sky had been dark at the beach all day, but then there was a break in the clouds on the horizon and the wind came up. As the weather changes, the black crows and white seagulls circle all around the artist. All the while, the cool and collected pelicans flew in a tidy crisp line at the horizon, hunting for fish. While at first glance those birds do not belong together, but because of California’s ecological composition the coexistence of the three species becomes possible. In this aspect, the painting teeters the balance between being “possible fantasies” and “realistic idealism”, not completely fantastical, yet curated enough that it is not completely natural.

Adam has lately been painting birds against the California city landscapes as a metaphor for migration and cultural diversity. Coincidentally, global unrest has exposed multiple problems in the society, including the racial, political, and class justice. While not intentionally talking about racial tension, because of the political landscape it is created in, a racial justice approach to reading this work becomes a totally valid point of view.