Leap / ©2007

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on January 15, 2012 at 2:50pm

 

Curator’s Comment:  

 

This piece has an interesting dichotomous relationship between active gestural marks and more readily identifiable figurative elements.  I like the bold but amalgamated color, and the freshness that white injects into several of your paintings.   The outward looking face emerging out of the central left space in this piece has a de Kooning like expression in its raw grimace.  It is confrontational and questionably aggressive, but despite this strong presence, gets swallowed up by the dynamic surround.  The more open circular shapes provide some respite from the vigorous movement, but their primary yellows and blues don’t completely function as a visual rest.   I also like the expressive language of the marks in Turning Point- but I wonder if recognition of the abstracted objects is important.  (I see a Phillip Guston-ish shoe coming down on a yellow bird..?.)  But despite the swirling motion, this piece also exhibits a certain restraint, or self control.  Like ‘Leap’, the dripped paint is contained, and lines seem manicured to fit into the turbulent space.   Pieces like ‘Last Seen’ seem to go even further in prescribing a certain protected or safe area around the focal figure.  Perhaps they’re the calm in the eye of the storm.