“Haunted By Water”

Join us at the Kouba Gallery for “Haunted By Water”, a compilation of John G. White’s images that capture the waters that have survived the makings of mankind!

Rivers, lakes and wetlands — when the glaciers covered what is now Minnesota, millions of prairie potholes or wetlands, shield lakes and rivers were left behind, from the Canadian border along the Coteau des Prairies in South Dakota to northern Iowa border. Many of these original waters are being threatened, and millions of the original potholes have been drained to make way for farmland and society infrastructure. Over time many of the rivers have choked with algae and debris, carrying chemicals and crop runoff into the Gulf of Mexico. Lakes have become surrounded by not just cabins, but getaway mansions. Those are the ills of society, inflicted on the sources of life. Yes, there is something special about water. A prairie sunrise over a surviving pothole. Muskrats and ducks lazing about. Rivulets coursing over shallow riverbeds offering a hint of poetry. A sunset over a lake as you sit with a chilled Pino Grigio.

Like author Norman Maclean pinned, artist John G. White is haunted by waters, and has been since his youth. He shares, “We had ponds when I was growing up, depressions bulldozed out of the clay hillsides; waters I plied with my first fly rods, with flies i learned to tie myself. Ponds were special, havens for nice bass and big bluegills compared to creeks and rivers were already choked with mud. Browned surface water looked blue only if you were glancing into a sunset. Now as an elderly man in Minnesota, where countless trips have been made to the Boundary Waters, where we float canoes on the namesake river for walleye and catfish, where I search with my camera for images that survive the makings of mankind. Yes, over my 80 years these waters have ingrained themselves in my soul, for I’ve been haunted by waters.”