When I went to The opening of A Dog From Hell at Beta Pictoris Gallery, two pieces really caught my attention. They were Derek Cracco’s “The Space Between.” It was really wonderful to see this work coming from a Birmingham native! I personally really enjoyed these pieces and the extra visual dimension that they gave to emotional disconnect.

In Derek’s own words:

Space Between is an exploration of contemporary relationships filtered through fairy tales and folklore.  The two largest works each explore the emotional spaces that exist between couples.  They are grounded in the theory of the “Distancer and the Pursuer”.  This theory suggests that, in any given relationship, the emotional space between couples is always the same. One person takes on the role of the distancer, meaning that they pull away from the other, and the other pursues.  At times the roles switch, leaving the emotional distance between the two exactly two the same, and thereby never allowing their emotional states to meet. The path through the woods is a reference to this never ending journey. These works are constructed with ink jet prints and model train landscapes, creating images that oscillate between a flat, two dimensional surface and the three dimensional hills and valleys created from the landscape miniatures.

"Winter Wonderland" by Derek Cracco - Image Courtesy of Derek Cracco

"Out Of the Woods" by Derek Cracco - Image Courtesy of Derek Cracco

Derek Cracco is Assistant Professor of printmaking and computer graphics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. View more works online at derekcracco.com