Michelle'sBook-30

Comment

Comment by Michelle Connolly on January 17, 2012 at 9:41pm

Thank you for your comments on the works, its interesting as the faces are a point of departure for the work to begin - I am not precious over them and yes you are right the Animal Head is an older work and was  created when I first started pushing the mixed media element in my work. yes I have been looking at Dubuffet's work together with many outsider and folk artists; raw vision is a magazine that I pour over time and time again. I love brave and bold art making, its refreshing. I have not yet looked at Arcimboldo but will check out the work. I am a new member to artists2artists and artdeadline and my intention is to reach out to a wider audience with my artwork, I am delighted to have a response from you on my work after signing up. If you are ever in Wilmington North Carolina please come pay me a visit in my studio at ACME Art Studios .. I am buried in work and in the process of documenting a lot of it so will add more images of recent works shortly.

Comment by Resident Curator on January 17, 2012 at 6:59pm

Curator’s Comment:  

 

There’s a playful familiarity in these collaged/roughly assembled portraits that I thoroughly enjoy.  The simplicity of the frontally facing heads makes the works look masklike, but without any supposition of concealment or mystery. I even wonder if the faces are of central importance, or if they exist simply to provide an expressive ‘hook’ to lure the viewer into the multifaceted environment.  The piece is rich in layered and embedded edges.  While specific media doesn’t seem to be cited with this image (Michelle’s book-30), there appears to be charcoal lines alongside the more modeled and torn segments that make up the composite image.  I like the diffused color and texture against what I perceive to be graphic found elements making up the eyes and mouth.  The graphic text and small bits of red in those papers hold my attention in the center, while the broken, fragmented shapes dissolve in and out of the ground.  I also like that the nose in this face seems to be made from a disparate drawing- and maybe even the negative space of another unseen and unknown object.  I find the image with the animal like head (Michelle’s book-3) forces these relationships in a more obvious, bold way.  The effect is less restful and contemplative, as there’s tension between the collaged textural objects on the surfaces, and the strained expression.  I’m also wondering if you’ve been looking at the wondrous portraits of Arcimboldo or Dubuffet’s cryptic animal portraits.