About

Don Bracken is inspired by nature and incorporates many natural materials in his art. As a process-oriented artist, his process includes the discovery of materials, which he then synthesizes and formalizes in the studio. Much of his work refences the World Trade Center and 9/11 ( such as in the above photo) drawing directly from his artist residence experience with a studio on the 91st floor in 1997. His work derives heavily from both the physical landscape and the archeological traces of civilization, he often combines materials such as clay and acrylics with local earth, natural pigments, vines, leaves, roots, and seed pods. He incorporates rich texture, evocative form, and elements of color, light, and kinetics in pieces that describe both life’s ephemeral transience and its constant evolution, as well as documenting the human capacity to cause decline, disorder, and chaos in the natural world. Bracken has received many awards, and his pieces are in numerous American and international collections.