Iceland volcanoes inspire new exhibit by Santa Rosa artist

Artists look in all directions for inspiration. Santa Rosa’s Gale S. McKee looked to the sky.

Specifically, she took note of news coverage of volcanic eruptions in Iceland and their effect on the Earth’s atmosphere.

“It started in Iceland in 2010, but there have been eruptions in 2020 and 2023 as well,” McKee said. “If a volcano erupts, that does affect the climate.”

For the mixed media paintings in her new exhibit “The Sky Is Falling” at the Fulton Crossing gallery and studio complex, the artist worked with acrylics but also with her own homemade “slag” — molten bits of glass affixed to the pictures.

The exhibit, featuring 11 volcano paintings in the complex’s front gallery, runs from Aug. 30 through Dec. 1, with a public reception Sept. 14.

“What I wanted to show was the effects of the volcanic eruptions, but I wanted the art to be abstract, not photos,” McKee explained during a recent interview.

Those volcanic effects include ash that poses hazards to planes, livestock, crops and towns, and the release of gases into the atmosphere that impact the climate and weather, she said.

In her artist’s statement for the exhibit, McKee wrote, “Yet despite the dangers volcanoes pose, I am drawn to the magnificent visual beauty that emanates from such a cataclysmic event. The colors, the textures, the historical and geological impact to the earth and humans continues to fascinate me.”

McKee studied at Croydon College of Art in London and the Art Institute of Chicago and holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Denver in Colorado.

Her work has been shown at the de Young Museum in San Francisco and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, as well as a long list of other venues, dating back to 2007.

Before launching her full-time art career, McKee had a career in advertising.

“My first job was illustrating the Yellow Pages,” she said.

In addition to the main exhibit, McKee will also display 15 large paintings of vintage cars, inspired by old photos and previously shown in other exhibitions, in her studio, B9, at Fulton Crossing.

During the public reception, the studios of the gallery’s other resident artists also will be open.

They are painters Bill Gittins, Paula Strother, Cliff Strother, Tony Speirs, Aimee Tomczak, Linda Dove Pierson, Lucy Liew, Donna McGinnis, Teresa Saluzzo, Beth Failor, Julie Hindley, Lida Rebik, Marina Hanson, Gale McKee, Robert Benson, Michèle Misino de Luca, Laura Ames, Kay Young and aNna rybaT, plus potter Laura Ames and glass mixed media artist Kay Young.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On X @danarts.