When I recently met up with Gig Harbor–based painter Tara Flores, there were crystals knocking around in her pocket. She produced them for me before we started talking: amethyst, apatite, agate, rhodonite, and others. She told me she keeps them close to her while she works translating each crystal’s energy into her paintings.
In Subtle Matter at J. Rinehart Gallery, Flores meditates on and responds to the healing properties of individual crystals. The title of the show refers to the esoteric concept of the etheric or subtle body, the layer of energy just outside our physical bodies. It also speaks to the subtle effects that Flores believes crystals have on us. “Everything is light, love and light. It sounds flippant and cheesy sometimes, but [everything] really is. All of existence is just energy in relation to each other,” she told me.
