There’s a peyote-trance clarity to the wildlife and landscapes painted by Linda Jo Nazarenus. Southwestern mesas cower beneath lightning-charged skies. The birds, bunnies, coyotes, and sheep have a numinous aura to them, as if perceived by a shaman. The intensity of the colors—not quite natural, not quite LSD—heightens these scenes past realism in “Far From Any Road.” The Seattle artist has based these canvases, mostly oils, on her road trips through the desert Southwest. Smaller and no less mysterious are her Ghost Series of animal diptychs, painted on wood, in which these Southwestern spirit animals appear in positive-negative reversal, split into two simultaneous realms. They suggest the cave drawings of lost tribes, extinct cultures that perceived these creatures differently than we do today. There’s the postcard view we see from within our air-conditioned car windows. Then there’s the vivid, ancient reality that refuses to be tamed. BRIAN MILLER

March 5-28, 10:30 a.m., 2009