No Secrets

Comment

Comment by Paul Chapman on November 16, 2011 at 10:55pm

I truly appreciate you taking the time to look at my work.  Thank you.

Comment by Resident Curator on November 16, 2011 at 3:00pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

 

I’m exceedingly intrigued by your work because at first glance it appears to be highly provocative, but then exposes the sheer banality of everyday life.  No Secrets implies we have them- secretive, clandestine or lurid habits concealed thinly behind closed doors, or medicine cabinets. But the smooth skill in the rendered still life instead creates a vanita of the ordinary.  It speaks to a certain uniformity or universality of human existence in the cool palette and modeled plastic surfaces. The lack of specificity and emphasis on graphic labeling prevents a pop reading of the subject, again subverting a more sensational or explicit delving into a personal realm.  I’m also absorbed by the lack of extraneous detail or reflected light.  Rather than the expected photo-realistic rendering, the objects common place is asserted through its simplified form and shadow.  Your figurative works which are obviously quite different in subject matter employ the same marvelous editing of information.  The Daydream denies the viewer the inherent satisfaction of candid disclosure- the figure turns away from us and ironically the vacuum cleaner is give hierarchical preference. While there is some modeling of value on the figure’s skin, the tone is also continuous, and melds into the fleshly colored ground.  More attention is given in terms of hue and value to the reddish brown sofas and landscapes on the wall.  So in both works the human presence isn’t as important, or doesn’t define us as much as the simple objects we own.