Patrick Kikut
Full Moon/Western Landscape - Hopi Land, 2026
Paint on panel
When I took on the opportunity to contribute to this project, it was easy for me to come up with my subject- the full moon. It was early December and there it was rising over the Sange de Christos. Distant and beautiful as usual.
The moon is not a new subject to me. It holds a prominent place in what I consider to be my first “real” oil painting. Decades later, I remain in a state of conceptual and optical wonder when looking, thinking, and painting the moon.
A friend, Howard Dennis, and I were talking about the moon one night and he confirmed that the moon came from the Hopi land. That made a lot of sense to me and someday I will take him up on his offer to show me exactly where the moon came from. Now when I see the moon, I wonder how it transformed its color from the rusty red sandstone colors of Hopi land to the icy white that I am perceiving. Now I think the moon is a Western Landscape. Distant horizons, dry, lonely, and beautiful.
Artist Statement:
Themes in my work come from extensive highway travel. Traveling has allowed me access into compelling landscapes, ecologies, histories, and cultures. These things help me gain an understanding of the West and drives the work I produce in the studio. I often find myself making field drawings in what feels like a place between a lonely paradise and a windswept crime scene.
My intention with this work is to offer a sense of the poetry and reality of these expansive spaces I find between our protected National Parks and Forests. It is important for me to include representations of our ever-encroaching culture onto these landscapes. During my travels, I seek out locations that read like an empty stage set where all the actors have left their props and abandoned the scene. This, I hope, offers the viewer an opportunity to step into the image and imagine a narrative.
