Cynthia Hurley’s 2001 exhibition at Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Attentive Waiting, focused on desert landscape paintings. The desert is a place of search, silence, and contemplation. In April of 2000, Hurley spent a month in Joshua Tree National Park as the resident artist. Staying in a remote cabin alone was a seminal experience. Rather than accurate portrayals of the landscape, the paintings are records of what the desert evokes.

In Wetness, Dryness, Hurley amplifies her interest in the dry desert landscape and the wet world of ponds to more metaphor imagery. Exploring the vernal pools is an ephemeral magical part of the Spring in the Central Valley. The cycle of wet/dry in nature, in our daily routines, and in our emotional or psychological lives becomes the content of her beautifully executed paintings on panel.

Pond (detail) Oil on Panel, 2003 48" x 78"	The Wash Oil on 3 Panels, 2003 12" x 48", 48" x 48" & 12" x 48"

Wail, Wall, Wash Oil on Panel, 2004 48" x 48"	The Dew Oil on Panel, 2004 48" x 48"
Wetness, Dryness #1 Oil on 5 Panels, 2003 48" x 12", 48" x 24", 48" x 48", 48" x 24", 48" x 12"
Wetness, Dryness #2 Oil on 2 Panels, 2003 18" x 70", 18" x 70"
Tideness Oil on Panel, 2004 41" x 70"

Pond Series #1 Oil on Paper, 2002 5" x 5"	Pond Series #2 Oil on Paper, 2002 5" x 5"	Pond Series #3 Oil on Paper, 2002 5" x 5"