OurLadyoftheOpera

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on December 9, 2015 at 12:01pm

Curator’s Comments:  

 

Our Lady of the Opera is a humorous piece, as an unlikely caricature of a female opera singer.  The robust energy of the figure is reserved for her reddish head and hair- visually projecting volume without utilizing the stereotypically voluptuous physical frame.  The floral stage is also an interesting construction, as the drapery never lets the viewer confuse the space with the natural outdoors.  The foliage is lavishly detailed and colorful- framing and accelerating the momentum of the invisible voice of the performer.  She exists perfectly in her environment.  Stylistically I enjoy the hyper-real quality in many of your works. Some of the figures in particular enjoy a smooth abstraction, while other paintings contain more representational bodies inhabiting a mysterious space. Sinews is a work I enjoy in the latter category, as the diagonal flow of the water is unsettling.  There is a primordial quality to the dark figure, half submerged, moving towards the front of the picture frame.  The twisted and snarled red brush to the right of him becomes a secondary figure and focal point, suggesting a physical as well as psychological entanglement to his situation.