Just the two of us

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on May 15, 2013 at 11:10am

Curator’s Comments:

 

Just the two of us is a brilliantly odd image- the abstraction of the “two” is difficult to grasp.  While they read as pinkish organic organisms their amorphous bodies appear almost amphibious. They may be primal sentient beings, vulnerable and aware of their bleak surroundings. The division between the muddy green space and whiter ground implies an impermeable barrier, but whether they actually wish to cross remains unclear. I see the object of their gaze as a hole in the ground with protruding stanchions…or it could be a trail or ladder of sorts.  As a viewer I’m decidedly held captive in that uncertain pensive moment, pondering the fate of the two.  The formal qualities of the painting add to the mystery, offering reductive scraping texture, as if more substance was originally there.  Before the Storm is equally appealing, with a blue mood slightly more somber.  The scraped textures appear more dramatic here; as the feathered edge of the darker color comes down to meet the waters horizon. But again, there seems to be evidence of figures or activities just beyond visual detection.  Like a dream that begins to fade as soon as you wake, I feel I’m in the presence of something I can’t quite grasp with any certainty, or fully comprehend.