What’s going on here? Artist Lynne McDaniel explores society’s complicated relationship to nature. For many years her work has been concerned with environmental issues. McDaniel uses the language of the landscape to explore changes created by wars, human intervention, and the passage of time. The scene may be beautiful, but there is always an element of ambiguity. The incursion can be a subtle dash of color, or a more violent stroke or erasure. The destabilization or interruption of what is happening in the paintings reflects her growing uncertainty about what is happening on the larger canvas of the world.

Most of McDaniel’s work from the last year or so reflects the contraction of her world to the streets surrounding her home in the foothills of Los Angeles. McDaniel found herself unable to engage with disasters and catastrophes and found herself seeking solace in the landscape of the daily walks she takes around her home and studio. The paintings document her movement through the physical space as well as the subtle changes occurring over time. The resulting work forms a sort of journal of McDaniel’s experience, a recording of daily activities during safer at home orders that gives an accounting of time, and status to small things. McDaniel is still more fascinated by the questions than the answers.