Lucas Hargis Mixed Meta4 at Mansfield Art Center

April 16 – May 22, 2022

A mixed metaphor is a mashup of two common phrases, clichés or idioms: “Don’t count your chickens in one basket.” “We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.” “You opened that can of worms, now lie in it.”

For the first time ever, a single species can consciously affect the worldwide climate. Humans decide the fate of all life on Earth. The scope & scale of what we are capable of, well, I can’t seem to get that out of my system.

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;”
from The World is Too Much With Us, William Wordsworth

I use more than my fair share of clean water. I eat genetically-modified corn & such. My chickens are boneless & skinless & I sometimes forget where the meat comes from. I produce waste of all kinds that doesn’t simply evaporate once I’m done with it. I do my part to screw the world up. I’m trying, in small ways, in conscious ways, to educate myself & to do better, to be a good steward.

As best as I can understand why I’ve made these particular works for this show, I keep returning to one phrase: alive, beautiful & strange. I feel it describes all of nature, life, humankind included.