Underneath

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on August 3, 2011 at 7:11pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

 

I find it fascinating that this piece is a watercolor.  It seems to challenge what I recognize, or have experienced with the media. The “fingerprints”, like greasy trails of oil based media, have a luminous depth and transparency of hue that provides magnificent, dramatic mark-making in the context of the tighter image of the squashed/compressed face on glass. It is an extraordinary and unexpected play with orchestrated chaos.  Arrival is in stark contrast to this robust and expressive work, but also carries exceptional control and variation.  The mood is still and disquieting, despite the palpable bustle of the urban landscape. The figure is rigid but simultaneously composed-, as if bewildered by her troubling predicament.  Again, I am fond of the subtle utilization of light and local color. Small details like the water pooling at the sewer drain pull the viewer into the sensory experience.  While curiously realistic, there seems to be little atmospheric space in the work, resulting in a slight compression or flattening of the perspective.  The storefronts push forward, and seem to exist as the same horizon as the cars.  At first it seemed reminiscent of a vague dream space, underscoring the widespread dream/nightmare of being naked in a busy public place.  But the prevailing use of warmer yellow tones also makes it look like a Kodachrome snapshot.  I’m wondering if this observation comes from a photographic source used for the painting, or a subtle shift of hue on my monitor.