These large studio paintings I havent seen in 14 years. They were in a show at Ro Snell Gallery in Santa Barbara in 1993. They have been in storage there since that time.
Ken Johnson wrote in Art in America, "Now, in what looks like a major breakthrough for him, Botts has boldly extended the latter impulse into a surprising suite of big, philosophically loaded allegorical landscapes." he went on to say
"As a group, the paintings at Shafrazi are connected by an implied narrative of a solitary hiker's trek into the mountains. Depicting spectacular wilderness scenery - majestic waterfalls, precipitous slopes, etc. - and, in some cases, the heroically monumentalized wanderer himself, the pictures hark back to the Emersonian pantheism that inspired the painters of the Hudson River School. This romanticism is complicated, however, by the style in which the paintings are made.
Rather than painting realistically or expressionistically to create the kind of thrilling illusions of space and elevated feelings that sublime landscapes traditionally offer, Botts works in a style derived from comic illustration. Forms are outlined cartoon style, colors - mostly blues, greens, grays and browns - are slightly grayed but bright and unmodulated. There are no shadows, and objects such as trees or clouds are represented by generic signs. This manner of depiction imparts an eccentric humorous and slightly ironic spin to the contents, establishing a mood of rapturous giddiness."
