Tasmanian Sunset

Comment

Comment by Phyllis Stapler on June 5, 2011 at 6:13pm

Thank you Kristen.  This is a Tasmanian Tiger, my favorite muse and while they are considered extinct there are many "sightings" on the internet so I have hope there may be survivors.  I am influenced by Asian art and the fruit was appropriated from a Chinese print.

Comment by Resident Curator on June 4, 2011 at 5:22pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

This is a brilliant series of flora and fauna. The isolated animals against a richly textured surface have an ornamental feel.  While tight and illustrative in the areas of positive space, the ground provides an almost startling contrast, and makes the animal forms more of a motif than associated visual narrative.  I particularly like the tenuous bat clinging to the thin green branch in this piece.  The blossoming fruit on the very tip almost seems defiant in its weight on the branch- all hanging over the cat like creature below.  The fruit (papaya?) seems warmer than the pale sun further from the top, because of its saturation and complexity.  But the shapes echo each other, as part of a flatter motif.  While this work is my favorite in the portfolio, Okapi and Apple tree also has a fine relationship between the figure and ground- both give the central animal figure room to breathe.  But Tasmanian Sunset remains slightly quirky in that the animals’ identity is ambiguous.  The okapi is beautifully rendered, but leaves no question of its origin or history.  Tasmanian is more fanciful and dreamlike.   The animal’s presence, while solid in form, somehow seems fleeting.