Alan Montgomery says of his work: “The evolution of the circle/disc pieces occurred while I was at my three-week residency in May-June 2019. The pieces that I created emerged in the last week. I believe much of my effort was focused on making something happen through the current bog pieces that I had brought from home. I saw these circles/discs as experiments that became epiphanies, each one seemingly running off as an individual account of process and then meaning. Landscape, biology, literature, and metaphysics all tied up into this micro/macrocosm on the paper. Cyclical and somehow poignant, each asserted a kind of identity and specificity, which bewildered me. The circles/discs have the name ‘Poiesis.’ In philosophy, poiesis is ‘the activity in which a person brings something into being that did not exist prior.’ Poiesis is etymologically derived from the ancient Greek term να κάνω, which means ‘to make.’”

Montgomery is a tenured professor of Art at Dakota State University. His interests reside in topical issues ranging from environmental to socio-political. Montgomery was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1961, and he currently lives in Madison, South Dakota.

To find out more about the artist, visit his website here.