Holding the Vison

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on February 20, 2021 at 10:44am

Curator’s Comments:  

 

Holding the Vision came up randomly on the site today.  It’s a lot to take in!  I was first struck by the intense, undulating color.  The vivid blue-violet palette imparts a glowing quality to the organic forms, in both the interior and exterior landscape, while voluminous gyratory tentacles of the octo-figure add erratic movement to the stationary body. For me the content is multifaceted and highly original.  The pregnant figure, full of potential and conception, extends a substitute “arm”, perhaps of the imagination, to write on the paper.  The encapsulation of the fetus, both implied in the female body, and represented in the smaller vignette in the upper left, is possibly the source of the written expression.  The cosmic rattle accentuates this transmitted power. I appreciate the manner in which the formal elements repeat in the iris flowers.  They share the almost grotesquely beautiful color and form of the octopus creature. I assume they are cut blooms suspended in water.  This makes me speculate what could be said about nature curtailed.  This is a dynamic painting, and no doubt the large scale increases the intensity of the scene.  Looking through your other pieces, I remember admiring and commenting on another painting.  Recognizing several other compositions share dynamic tension, I interpret Holding the Vision to stray from the idea of feminine harmony, and instead view natural creation, including birth, as a fierce and untamed directive.