The imagery on the 220 running feet of weathering steel panels with etched bronze overlays is loosely based on the myth of Midas, a king who, receiving one wish, requested that everything he touched turned to gold. He soon could not eat or drink or be with the ones he loved because everything he touched turned to gold. He regretted his wish and had to request a wish reversal. In the Midas Fence are images of local flora and fauna intertwined with abstracted strands of beads and jewels. The plants and birds are all Minnesota natives, chosen for their beauty and their treasure-related names. Among them are jewel weed, zigzag goldenrod, pearly everlasting, golden eye duck and the gold finch. The imagery is overlaid with bronze etched with articles from the New York Times’ describing the fall of Lehman Brothers and subsequent financial collapse of 2008. The art panels are a musing on the riches of nature versus the riches of man.
Zigzag Goldenrod
Deborah Mersky, a Blanco County, Texas artist, is both a studio artist and a designer in the field of public art.
Her creations in both realms, are born from the overlap of nature and human habitation, which she views as a “delicate, and off kilter moment.”
In the studio, in addition to drawing and painting, Mersky uses a clay printing technique where she carves the surface of a clay slab, then prints it with oil based inks. Her work has been shown nationally in galleries and is in collections as diverse as MICROSOFT and the Fundacion Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic. In public spaces, she has created pieces for libraries, hospitals, parks, light rail and public utility facilities in Washington, Oregon, California, Minnesota and Texas.
Mersky was awarded the Jentel Residency, Sheriden, Wyoming, and she is the Founder/Teacher of Art Test, San Antonio, Texas, where she was awarded for her work as 2016 Art Educator of the Year, by the McNay Art Museum San Antonio.
deborahmersky.com
Bract- Scattered Bouquet, University Health Systems, San Antonio, Texas - 2014