Primary Reaction

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on January 22, 2014 at 12:24pm

Curator’s Comments: 

 

Some of these photographs taken with a macro lens feel like sections of a significantly larger whole; beautiful specimens that may have evolved erratically or intuitively rather than compositionally.  Primary Reactions is one of the pieces, however, that stands completely realized and contained on its own, offering exquisite variation in organic modulation and color.  The small cobalt blue circular shapes are compact visual complexities in themselves, honeycombed with divided cells.  They nicely mimic the clear bubble shapes, moving the eye up vertically through the picture plane.   The halos of pale blue and orange marry the otherwise complementary hues, forging an aqueous middle ground to support the more graphic central striations of texture and pure color.   I also like that the visual weight seems slightly heavier in the top of the composition, elevating the dense color above the cleaved main form.   For similar reasons, I’m also very attracted to the image titled Juxtapose.  The heavy dark weight in the top half of the piece provides a solid visual rest for the complexities of color and line in the bottom section. The soft blending of warmer and cooler tonalities along the main line of higher resolution emphasis harmonizes the elemental relationships and focuses attention on the crisp bubble edges.