Our Lady of Pies

Comment

Comment by Stephen Brook on March 6, 2013 at 1:50pm

Nice painting, Whats in the pie?

Comment by dan fusco on March 4, 2013 at 7:09pm

Thank you curator for your thoughtful comments.

Comment by Resident Curator on March 4, 2013 at 12:42pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

Our Lady of Pies is an amusing image.  Extremely well crafted and composed, I’m not sure if irreverent or satirical religious iconography is actually intended.  The contemporary Madonna symbolically dressed all in blue offers the viewer the fruits of her labor.  While fertility, virginity, or presence of the sacred isn’t directly referenced, the inclusion of the small colorful parrots seems incongruous with the otherwise familiar domestic scene.  I like that the birds are extravagant or mythical observers of the profane. Formally, the painting offers subtle chiaroscuro shadows and potential abstraction or manipulation of interior planes.  The kitchen counter ever so slightly appears to tilt upwards towards the front of the picture plane.  Another visual device in outwardly presenting the kitchen scene to the viewer, it could also simply be the result of the more analogous and even color shifts between counter and wall.  The inclusion of the window pane reflection on the microwave behind the “lady” asserts the light outside moving in.  The broken expressive brushstrokes in the just baked pie and parts of the figure add energy and emphasis to the otherwise smooth handling of the picture.  I don’t see evidence of figures in tongue-in cheek mythological scenes in your other paintings, aside from possibly Durango Marsha, so I’m thinking there isn’t a whole lot more embedded iconography in the image. It’s pleasurable nonetheless.