Patterns Interrupted

Patterns Interrupted opens at Verdant Gallery on Saturday, August 22, bringing together two Austin artists, Laurie Carswell and Cameron Sands. The exhibition runs through September 26, and the opening reception is that first Saturday, August 22, from 4 to 7 PM.

Both artists work around the idea of interruption and the irregular forms that make landscape and life compelling. Carswell takes the iconic landscapes of Austin and the Hill Country and reimagines them through collage, fragmenting familiar vistas into layered, colorful compositions. The process pulls out unexpected color combinations, geometric relationships, and visual rhythms that you might miss if you were looking at the scene as a whole. Sands approaches disruption from a different angle, using bold lines, saturated color, and intentional mark-making. His work draws on the performing arts, architecture, nature, and psychology, and he embraces imperfection and contradiction as catalysts for transformation.

Together, they look at how interruption creates meaning, framing perfection not as uniformity but as the kind of beautiful irregularity found in nature and life. It's two different ways of thinking about the same thing—one working with the familiar landscapes of the region, the other with more abstract influences—sharing a wall for a few weeks.

If you want to hear more about the work, there's an artist talk with Laurie Carswell on Thursday, September 17, at 6 PM. The gallery is at 703 West 10th Street in Austin, and the show runs from August 22 through September 26.