Starr Hardridge: Shapeshifter

With mastery of colour and geometry, Starr Hardridge creates paintings inspired by humanity’s struggle for balance within nature, as well as Muscogee Creek mythology and values. Hardridge’s playful designs mimic the appearance of Eastern Woodland beadwork, incorporating its flowing aesthetics with abstract shapes as a jumping off point for new dialogues within his paintings. Beginning with a blank canvas, Hardridge embeds an impression of nylon mesh in a layer of black Venetian plaster. This leaves a grid on which he creates his design, much like the weave that beadworkers use to guide theirs. He then uses an assemblage of colour dots and contoured lines to piece together his iconic pointillist paintings. A culmination of these techniques, Shapeshifter is a modern take on the seen and unseen forces in nature.