"Shame" 2016

Comment

Comment by Jordan Mummer on July 5, 2016 at 3:24pm

Thank you for your comments about my work! Yes - these pieces are indeed oil pastel, though I start with with free flowing acrylic; working abstractly playing with color and composition. I do a bunch of these and just set them a side and later grab one at random and attack with oil pastel. I'm a stay@ home dad with two younger children and I was finding it difficult painting with oils due to it being messier, drying times and clean up. Of course, with the oil pastels I could just walk away if I needed to stop. I'm going to put the titles, sizes & media up shortly, but I don't wholly what they mean yet. This one is called "Shame". Though, I have been thinking/ writing about common threads and themes in my work and a lot my stuff has mostly been psychological in nature. With these, I've definitely been thinking about an imaginary world (sometimes like this world and sometimes not) with characters hesitately interacting with each other. Mystery is very important both for myself and the viewer. I could write all day on this, but i hear my kids getting into something (ha). Your observations were pretty spot on- thanks again!

Comment by Resident Curator on July 3, 2016 at 5:27pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

I like this most recent group of images you’ve posted on the site, but they seem slightly darker in tone and palette than some of your other paintings.  While scale and media aren’t posted yet, I’m wondering if these are oil pastels as they have a dominant texture that’s crayon-like, with hues that look more oil than water based.  There’s also a linear mark pervasive in the broader areas of open space, rather than smooth gradation or broken down wash.  I’m not certain what’s happening conceptually is these works, but they appear to be single scene narratives.  Without detecting a sequential story line in the order displayed, there’s a slightly eerie, surreal quality to the spaces in which the characters interact. Figures are contorted- subtly, or more abstracted, as in stylized head emerging from the hole in the third picture.  My favorite in this grouping is the fourth image, which seems to question something about garments as they relate to age and gender.  The central deep pink character sits atop something that initially looks like a tree truck, but continuing the underwater line in the composition, it could be the tail of a giant submerged, serpent like creature.  The small structure in the background space looks to be a shire, with a still statuesque form contrasting the “living” beings in more saturated hues.  The dark sky implies ominous judgment taking place- whether domestically or spiritually.  But I see more mystery than allegory unfolding in the scene.