"THE HEAVENS" BY DAN BRUGGEMAN

DAN

HEAVENS

DAN BRUGGEMAN

Nebraska native Dan Bruggeman teaches in the fine art department at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. During his 30-year career, he has been awarded numerous grants, including the Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, an Arts Midwest/NEA Visual Art Grant and a McKnight Foundation Grant. Dan’s paintings reveal the sometimes odd intersection between manmade structures and nature.

ARTIST STATEMENT

"Melancholia, the contemplation of the dismal plight we are in, has nothing in common with the desire to die… Describing the dismal plight we face contains the possibility of overcoming it."

(W.G. Sebald, The Description of Disaster)

Imposing in its scale, uncanny and mysterious, our upper-midwestern landscape has long been an avenue of transcendence. Its paradox is as compelling as any other in nature, treading that razor-thin edge between threat and wonder, human and divine.

But it also sits against the backdrop of an unavoidable reality: it is deteriorating. That looming sense of loss is the melancholic plot-twist in this otherwise serene theatre. It is the same delicate and precarious balance that, since Eden, has linked Earth and the Heavens.

In these paintings, I’ve sought to explore that connective tissue while paying homage to the melancholy derived from its transitory nature. These tiny vignettes might be playful if not for the suggestion of loss. But still, in the midst of that void, this landscape offers hope that what once existed may live on, and that the sentimental might give way to something eternal.

- Dan Bruggeman

The Heavens 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,500. image: 28 x 20" | frame: 34 x 25.5"

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The Perfect Shape of Our Absence (1) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $3,500. image: 30 x 41" | frame: 37 x 48"

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Small Things Recoil into Silence 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,500. image: 28 x 20" | frame: 33 x 25.5"

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Tightrope

2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,300. image: 23 x 23" | frame: 29 x 28.5"

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The Heavens (a squeaky, metallic kick or eek) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,800. image: 30 x 22" | frame: 35 x 26"

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The Perfect Shape of Our Absence (3) 2021 | watercolor & gouache on paper $5,000. image: 41 x 41" | frame: 48.5 x 48.5"

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Detail: The Perfect Shape of Our Absence (3)

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The Perfect Shape of Our Absence (2) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $3,500. image: 30 x 41" | frame: 37 x 48"

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Detail: The Perfect Shape of Our Absence (2)

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an annunciation

2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,100. image: 19.5 x 16" | frame: 24 x 20"

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When Great Trees Fall 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $3,500. image: 30 x 41" | frame: 37 x 48"

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Detail: When Great Trees Fall

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Woman (and task) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $5,000. image: 41 x 41" | frame: 48.5 x 48.5"

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Detail: Woman (and task)

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The Heavens (a wheezy querulous twee and a short vit) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,800. image: 30 x 22" | frame: 34 x 26"

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The Heavens (a dull, flat, metallic pik or tick) 2021 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,800. image: 30 x 22" | frame: 35 x 26"

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The Heavens (clee-ip, clee-ip, clee-ip) 2021 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,800. image: 30 x 22" | frame: 35 x 26"

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The Heavens (a hard chink; also a thin, slurred tseet) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,800. image: 30 x 22" | frame: 35 x 26"

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The Heavens (ti-DEE-di-di) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,800. image: 30 x 22" | frame: 35 x 26"

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Paradise (for a few) 2 2022 | watercolor on paper $950. image: 10 x 8" | frame: 16 x 13.25"

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The Perfect Shape of Our Absence (4) 2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper $2,800. image: 23 x 28" | frame: 27 x 34"

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Paradise (for a few) 2022 | watercolor on paper $950. image: 10 x 8" | frame: 16 x 13.25"

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