The Drowning World of Travis Pratt’s There/Then

Teetering on the knife edge of our ecosystem’s collapse, there is a slow-churning sensuality

in There/Then, Travis Pratt’s new paintings at Greenlease Gallery Are we through

anticipating and ready to take honest stock of our environmental situation or will we remain

ignorant to this plight? This is a deeper question to ponder. For right now, Travis Pratt is

documenting how and where the effects of globalization and climate change are making itself

known. Clues, traces and footprints of what is now at the ecological fore have been present

for years. Pratt does not over dramatize nor does he minimize his impressions. They are

straightforward, giving his audience a chance to see up close for themselves how the

ancillary and tertiary effects of global warming are perceived

Shack by Travis Pratt (Image courtesy of the artist)

Pratt initiated this conversation with The Joplin Paintings (Parts I and II) and this body of

work continues the discussion. One can deny that something is happening to our

environment if their belief system excludes the reality. Is it willful ignorance or propositional

knowledge? Each series of work espouses, whether intentionally or not, America as a

decaying empire. Our carbon footprint is already manipulating nature’s Master Plan. Couple

this with an incoming administration that considers global warming a fantasy and only then

might we finally comprehend our limited choices.

There/Then culminates a six-week visit to Deep Creek off St. John’s River in Geneva,

Florida, north of the Everglades, Pratt unintentionally approaches our ruin as a feeling of

exhausted debauchery seen in long, swooping brushstrokes that dominate the canvas,

sucking up all the oxygen in the room. It’s sensuous with a maw that is a bit used up, Not

unlike the Everglades, or any wilderness, a fear of the unknown is instilled where one is

curious, but trepidacious, before taking a first step inside. Still, it’s a place I wouldn’t mind

spending an hour or two.

Caution and Deep Creek by Travis Pratt (Image courtesy of the artist)

Consider Caution as a detail for the larger tableau of Deep Creek, insomuch the markmaking

in each bears similarities. The more I think about the way Pratt gives us color the

less my insistence of the acid yellow strikethroughs were phosphorous fog from the

Everglades and think instead of something closer to radiation. It is keeping more in line with

the void presented here; somewhat unearthly, or worse still, of a post-apocalyptic surface.

Perspective changes in the heavy Florida heat and it becomes a battle to see your way

through the sultry stickiness. Decisions are made stemming from how quickly one can get

back to the shade. But in an ecosystem that goes from beach-like to swampy, one never truly

disengages from the reality of warmth. A root system is shown here, tied precariously to the

rising waters of the Everglades, illuminates how the local ecosystem is destroying vast land

masses. This is related to the exact problem of rising tides faced by the state of Florida itself.

Pratt captures elements that aren’t necessarily the most provocative; they are an

ordinariness of dying pastorals and therein lies the full impact of this series.

The thing that Travis Pratt does so well is convey a sense of time through the flatness of his

paintings. Each one is a perfectly contained record of time. Although impossible to fully

discern, the first marks exist with the last marks. Wheels takes us in different directions while

the truck remains grounded and the stroller floats off on its own. There’s a myriad of symbols

here; the ethereal gravity of fatherhood while the drudgery of everyday living forces our feet

(or wheels) on the ground. Here too, are the effects of globalization and its adverse effects

not only on the population, but the psyche as well. The Everglades, and specifically quiet

enclaves when extended families can raise their clans without outside influence, are seen in

their twilight moment of existence.

Wheels by Travis Pratt (Image courtesy of the artist)

Stop! Let’s take this out for another spin and consider a different outcome. A long time is

being spent envisioning “the forthcoming ‘breakdown of nature’”. What about the alternative;

that we don’t go out with a bang but a whimper? Modest change, fashioned incrementally, is

a stronger survival tactic and it’s an opportunity to forego, or at least acknowledge and

understand the forces of eventuality are stronger than us. Therein lies the real seductive

force; allowing change to occur. Pratt is portraying the slow movement of inevitability; a

whimpering debtor rather than a gulping bankrupt. Pratt is a documentarian about the end of

a life we assumed, or hoped, would last forever. And you can see how that’s not feasible or

sound thinking. Even if we screwed up this planet, it isn’t permanently rendered fallow. We

can prefer to think of this as preparing for the next wave of caretakers. Let’s hope they do

things differently.