The river is continually referred to in Reed’s work. Once a symbol of time and change in his paintings, it now has become a collaborative partner. Reed spends days and hours on the river fly fishing. Mementos of this time on the river, beaver chewed sticks, logs, arrowheads, and junk, slowly began making their way into the studio and eventually into the work. Over time they formed a bridge between the river and the creative output in the studio. In this current exhibition, "this is the before", Reed combines painted landscapes with small, wooden sculptures in the form of trail markers dotting a hiking trail. The largest, an arrow, reads simply Before. The word is both a warning and an invitation to view any ordinary present-day moment through the eyes of a time-traveler from the future. What would you change if you could go back in time, it asks? What if you are there right now?

Tom Reed is an artist, master printer at Island Press, and senior lecturer in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. Reed received his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa and has had several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. He lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri.

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