W-9, Arches: “Myth to Reality” by Kate Brogdon. June 13 - August 8, 2025

Show Dates: May 7 - June 8, 2025

Opening Reception: June 14 6-9pm; July 12 6-9pm

“Myth to reality” includes a series of portraits rooted in reality with fantastical elements transporting toward myth. A portrait was historically crafted to capture a real person; now it serves as a starting point for various tales. While myth is thought to root in reality, perception bends beneath the weight of expectation: instead of what is, we often see what we believe. Which then is stronger, and does this vary for each person? Does the reality inspire the myth or does the myth shape what we call real? Can we ever truly see the same way? And when we remember something, do we preserve it, or transform it into what we wished it was? Reality is the ephemera that arrives in daily fragments such as wrappers among the other packaging, invitations to spend, respond and see. Our worlds flood with noise and images too numerous to hold. Here I follow echos: mirrored proportions of redwoods and chopstick sleeves, dreams of nymphs pieced from glossy pages and the narratives of health whispered by pills, creams and powders. “Everything is interconnected” weaves through the other pieces creating new myths about more oddments from life.