Forest-Shaded Companions

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on September 17, 2012 at 8:37pm

Forest-Shaded Companions is a hauntingly picturesque work, though I can’t quite identify the media.  At first glance it seems to be a manipulated (digitized/solarized) photograph, but there’s also a wonderful gritty texture that’s reminiscent of ink and scratchboard. Despite my uncertainty, I believe to some degree the technique or process is irrelevant, and its success rides solely on how it communicates/transmutes as a standalone image.  The light source throughout the scene is ghostly and romantic, and while the light seems to be coming in from the left side of the picture frame, it also appears to illuminate the subjects from within.  The soft glow travels across highly textural surfaces, treating each as though it’s part of a harmonious flow.  I also love how the vertical lines of the trees uplift the space, and create ascending lines pointing up to a delicate web of smaller branches.  I imagine the composition has been carefully constructed and arranged, and yet simultaneously it seems to be capturing a fleeting moment as the animals move precariously through the night landscape.