Exploring a Leaf

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on June 9, 2015 at 4:25pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

I find it interesting that I originally passed over Exploring a Leaf in your portfolio when I first viewed it as a thumbnail, believing it to be a photograph taken with a macro lens.  While I don’t elevate hand painting methods over photography- I’ve never been one to believe the manual time invested in the creation of a piece correlates to its intrinsic success. But there is something fascinating about the way this leaf was depicted.  The eye is forced to slow down and take in the organic patterns in such a way that would likely be different in a photographic image, which provides crisp articulation of pattern.  The beauty here exists in the imperfection.  On closer viewing, the work also has a topographic, sculptural presence. The veins of the leaf intimate physical, tectonic barriers.  The statement accompanying the work addressing the natural versus the (human) made also assists in the conceptual read of the work.  In this context the piece connects to other paintings revealing industrial infrastructure and architectural division; despite the formal and aesthetic qualifies first appearing rather disparate.