Ian Norstad’s exhibition, The Sea is a Desert, at Public Land Gallery is a new body of work inspired by a return to the ocean after the loss of his house (and art studio) to the Nunes Fire in 2017.
In the artist's paintings, offbeat colors and abstraction are employed to gracefully depict the ever-changing movement of the ocean, while figures are shown atop water seemingly suspended in time. In one painting, Norstad has portrayed a figure with arms fully extended outward, appearing to be levitating on the water. The powerful image resembles the iconic depiction of Christ on the Cross; perhaps suggesting the religious attributes that the act of surfing, or surfers themselves, can have while riding waves. "There is something that happens when you go to the ocean that is very primal. It’s only you and the will of the water, and you realize how small and powerless you are. I gave myself to the water, and this body of work represents what the water has given back to me," says Norstad.
