John Berry exposition at Orcas Public Library / July 2026

||| FROM JOHN BERRY |||

A lone traveler/hiker/pilgrim, kneels prayerful with a living divining branch , and meditatively so, on the top of a hillside mountain that has been stripped of trees. Amidst the apparent devastation of this nature area, water as a spring flows from the aerie, freely flowing down the mountain top hill.

This figure inspired by his photograph taken during a blessing of native art on Madrona Point, is the subject of two different works by artist John Berry currently on view in Eastsound on Orcas Island.

At the Orcas Public Library, one will also find five semi~epic inspired exaltation of the painting style known as Luminism or Tonalism, first known from Caspar David Friedrich’ art of some 250 years ago, and celebrated by the Hudson River Valley painters and the great painters of the western story of America: Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Thomas Cole, etc.

The exhibition also hosts five large compositions featuring human figures of the contemporary human condition and visual commentary suggesting happiness, love, mirth, division, a visual diaspora of a modern Babylon, and once again the lone figure on the mountainside with a spring coming forth.

The archetypal figure, generally female, with the spring, is within the tales and legends of mythological reality found in Celtic lore, Islamic architectural siting, the Bible and most cultures. Once again in Cascadia. This particular image was inspired by often times resident of Orcas Island and a true friend of the Earth: Jasmine Ikeda.

Berry is mostly noted for the iconic vast panoramas of which serve as a ongoing meditative artistic presence devoid of human distraction and folly. These are are often served up in abraded gold leaf and metallic finishes suggesting icons, and constructed locally from reclaimed moulding and repurposed woodwork from deconstructed buildings of Habitat for Humanity, the Re-Store, and the burgeoning architectural artifacts efforts, of which he has practiced for over 40 years.

The exhibition will continue thru the month of July. www.johnraymondberry.com

The artist is also a sound installation designer improvisor composer.