Carol Wallace

“In retrospect, I feel like my work as a geologist was, in fact, my art education.” Give or Take a Few Million Years reflects Wallace’s experience with the ridgelines and landscapes of her past life through drawings, paintings, and textiles that build a dreamlike, otherworldly exhibition worth delving into.

“Geology is like time travel. Rocks are visible evidence of earlier worlds going back more than 4 billion years,” Wallace says. “Atmospheres were created, oceans opened and closed, mountains were formed and eroded, and microorganisms evolved to a world we know today. We are all embedded in deep time.”

The exhibition invites the viewer to experience a visual anthology of stories found in the rocks. Geologic imagery is stitched and inked on layers of silk organza, magnified minerals of local bedrock are projected onto the gallery wall, biomorphic shapes are sculpted onto fractured rock, and ink drawings remind us that a rock is much more than its exterior surface.