What comes to mind when you think of the word “blur”? Blurry vision, blurry perception, and blurry outlines are some aspects found in the exhibition Blur at Art Saint Louis.

Derek Cadzow’s photograph Speed is one of the few urban-themed pieces in the exhibition. Three people wait in a subway station as a train flies past, out of focus. A mix of races, genders, and probably ages, the passengers met in this station by chance, a blur of a moment that will end when their train comes and they separate.

We expect blur in a fast-paced city but not in the midst of nature. Ann Homann’s mixed-media piece Morning Missed Series No. 2 is made up of eight small panels which show increasingly blurry images of plants in a wooded area. The top-and-bottom pair at the far left clearly show leaves, vines, and stems. The top panel in the next pair displays a wider view of the woods with an undefined background, mirrored in the bottom panel like a reflection in a body of water. In the last two pairs the woods fade into completely abstract forms. Homann explains, “This work explores a blurring of boundaries between air, land and water, between surface and implied depth, reality and reflection.”

Like Homann’s work, Joe Johnson’s two photographs use the concept of blur to evoke different emotions and ideas. In Rock Cut, Manhattan, KS, we see a hill with trees during a snowfall, which blurs the scene and creates a blanket effect: everything is white, still, and peaceful.

Tracks in Snow, Manhattan, KS contains a potential narrative. We see flat land and an indistinct horizon through falling snow. It’s hard to tell where we as viewers stand in relation to the surroundings. To the left, a set of snow-filled tire tracks leads out of the photograph and leaves us wondering who was here and why.

Moving from winter images to one of summer, Metra Mitchell’s encaustic-on-board piece Float is clever and apt for the season. People drift and swim in a lake or public pool. They wear colorful swimsuits and the water is an inviting deep blue. Mitchell used a clear wax-like material to blur the top one-fourth of the piece (the “background”) so the image takes on a photographic quality, with the background out of focus.

In the same vein as Homann and Johnson, Cloudline (at Mount Magazine) by Robin Street-Morris has an intense atmospheric sensibility. Deep earthy tones of watercolor and pastel evoke a landscape; white suggests clouds or mist; and bright blue at the upper left reveals a hint of sky.

Blur runs from June 11 – July 26. Art Saint Louis is located at 555 Washington Ave., Suite 150. Gallery hours are Monday, 10:00am – 4:00pm; Tuesday through Friday, 10:00am – 5:00pm; and Saturday, 10:00am – 4:00pm. For more information, call 314-241-4810 or visit www.artstlouis.org.