Waters of sorrow and tranquility. Havoc, movement, and finally suspension. Layers of sediment from a lake, from dry riverbeds, from buildings under construction, from dust settling on the paper in my studio. These aren’t creationist works. Well, they might be. Tsunamis, lichen sent to Mars to check for water, walleye and bass my granddad caught in Arkansas, the same granddad who served in Okinawa. B-29 overhead. Black rain. What does radiation feel like underwater?

These works are culled from personal narratives that reflect on universal narratives of disaster and transformation. This work is curious and foolhardy. It’s a reaction, a question, an archive, and a collection of reinterpretations that consider an uncertain present and future. Orderly and absurd, these works reflect on our existence in this floating world.
 
Ryan Cronk was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, but grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received his BFA from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 2000. He received his MFA in printmaking from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010. He currently lives and works in Austin, TX.