Watie White

Two floors of Watie White’s studio are filled with the fruits of his “obsessive” working— drawings, paintings, and prints fill every wall. Connecting the various projects is an abiding interest in people and communities and the landscapes that surround them. In a series of large woodcuts, White carefully observes his neighborhood landscape, but inserts surprises for the close observer— animals and people mate in the shadows, transforming an otherwise realist composition into a humorous twist on ideas of perception and storytelling. In another project, working with Habitat for Humanity, White mined a condemned house for the ghosts of its storied past, then painted a cycle of narrative works depicting the lives once lived there. His paintings were installed in every window of the house before demolition, bringing both a sense of value and closure to the doomed property.