For over a decade, Brinley Ribando and Julia Whitlow have worked in close proximity—two artists and friends with distinct practices, yet bound by a shared instinct to observe, reflect, and collect moments. Field Notes brings their work into conversation, exploring the ways in which fleeting encounters, personal histories, and the natural world shape perception and meaning. 

Whitlow’s work captures the overlooked details of everyday life—cracks in pavement, discarded objects, shifting light—transforming them into compositions that challenge ideas of beauty and significance. Through abstraction and narrative framing, she distills emotion from the incidental, inviting viewers to pause and reconsider the weight of seemingly mundane moments.

Ribando’s work, deeply rooted in her surrounding landscapes, reflects on transformation, identity, and connection. Through vibrant color and fragmented form, she merges figures with nature, blurring boundaries between self and environment. Women—often herself or those who have shaped her—become symbols of growth, memory, and shared experience, woven into patterns that echo the cycles of life. Together, their work functions as a form of documentation—an ongoing collection of observations, emotions, and impressions.

Field Notes is a meditation on the act of looking closely, of gathering meaning from what is often passed by. It invites viewers to engage in their own process of reflection, considering how everyday encounters—both personal and environmental—inform the way they see, remember, and belong.