A Founding Father of Humboldt State University's Art Department and nationally reocognized painter, Glenn Berry is the creator of a unique and powerful geometric style of painting in which faceless figures move, work and travel throughout the landscape, symbolizing the 'Act of Process' rathter than its results.

Berry's painting, Purgatory, epitomizes this act of process. His toiling figures appear to labor and suffer with no apparent results. Escaping their entrapment not through any means of their own, but rather through the aid of unseen forces.

PUR•GA•TOR•Y: (N) 1. In Roman Catholic Theology, a state or place in which those who have died in the grace of God expiate their sins by suffering. 2. Any state of place of temporary suffering.

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Glenn Berry gains great satisfaction from making a painting. All parts of the process interest him - construction the image, the space, the composition, the color - every phase is a rich experience. This enjoyment of building a painting and all the interrelated processes associated with this kind of work reveals his love of the internal workings of great art.

Painting allows Berry the ongoing pleasure of seeing new things. His works are filled with the results of careful analysis, innovative structures and a reverence for color. He invents a realm filled with fascinating elements and a robust population.

He has stated "Humans in new and surprising territories fascinate me, and I always wonder what new world will emerge as I start a new painting. Whether or not it's a territory that I will like, it's always a surprise." These ideas combine to give the viewer a place to enter into visually - and join him in his exploration.

~ excerpt written by Martin Morgan from Glenn Berry Recent Paintings, Feb. 16 - March 26, 2000, Humboldt Arts Council, Eureka, California.