 The season of rain falls upon Seattle sending the art lover into the warmth of the many area galleries. With the shuttering of SAM downtown, Pioneer Square offers many delactable treats, the most compelling of these is the new exhibiton of recent paintings by David Kroll.
I have been admiring the deft hand of David Kroll for about eight years now and am still amazed at how arresting his private compositions are. From the first day until now, they take my breath away. It is as if the artist has the alchemical ability to conjoure emotions at the tip of a brish.
"Our lives have become increasingly removed from nature. Wilderness has been reduced to isolated refuges. As new development and building spread, there are fewer wild areas. Yet, each year people flock to these refuges, these parks, to admire and connect with nature. As we speed onward with progress, there is an intellectual and emotional longing for the natural world. Today is different from America in the 19th century. Civilization was moving west and progress represented promise. At that time there began a style of landscape painting sometimes referred to as "The Hudson River School". This was a peculiarly American style of landscape painting influenced by this country's large tracts of wilderness.
 Progress is documented in these paintings. Wilderness is depicted in the foreground of some of these works. As one's eye moves to the background, one witnesses stages of man's progress that culminates with a town or city. The artists expressed reverence for the landscape and sorrow about the vanishing wilderness. They lamented the loss of the native peoples and their lands. The devotional quality to many of these paintings suggests that nature and God were one.
I feel a link to America's early landscape painters. Whereas they document the progress of civilization with its attendant loss of the wild and unknown, I want to reclaim the wilderness.
 We can no longer experience unknown wild areas. We can visit designated wild areas, parks. We have become removed from nature, both physically and intellectually. Yet I believe a connection to nature is needed. It seems ingrained in our psyche.
I paint refuges, places to go to for solace. I want my paintings to be destinations of quiet and calm. However, this world is fragile. The elements in the foregrounds of my paintings are items carefully constructed, either by humans or animals. Yet, they are objects easily broken or destroyed.
 Birds represent messengers from the wild. They embody beauty and fragility. They are visitors that remind us of lands beyond, wilderness. The distant landscapes in my paintings are remembrances of the natural past, vaguely familiar and pleasing.
The natural world seems essential to me but I am puzzled by how one can integrate it into our urban lives. Although, we are neither able nor willing to return to an Arcadian state, we still need to have a relationship with nature. I want to add a sense of balance, order and beauty to a world that is weighted in the opposite."
David Kroll 2001
 His work graces many collections including: Deloitte & Touche, First National Bank of Chicago, The Gund Collection, MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, Nordstrums, Phillip Morris Management Corporation, Prudential Insurance Company,
South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN.
Sprint, and the United States Trust Company, Kroll earned an M.F.A. at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a concentration in both Painting and Drawing. He previuosly earned a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied; Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking.
Kroll's work will be on view at the Grover/Thurston Gallery, Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 until 5:00 & by appointment through January 28, 2006. The Gallery is located at 309 Occidental Avenue South Seattle, WA 98104 [Pioneer Square].
These Galleries Represent David Kroll
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