PETRO diptych

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on March 19, 2017 at 9:10am

Curator’s Comment:

 

I’m just coming around to viewing this diptych that was posted some years back, and am completely entranced by the complexity of the image, and combination of media.  Perhaps the fine lines of silverpoint on aluminum account for the ghostly layering of imagery; the primary organic forms are feathery and lifelike, but still somewhat indistinct.  The car parts you mention in the accompanying text provide a visual foil to the otherwise organic imagery, while the muted overall value pattern softens the hard edges of the machine, and embeds them into the space.  I like the pairing of the similarly treated compositions.  The slight discrepancies in shape and color infuse the diptych with a shift akin to breathing; slight expansion and contractions.  The wispy borders of the center forms also appear to be directly affecting the surrounding space, pulling at the swirling lines and tonal values around them.  The inclusion of Petro in the title of the work suggests petro-chemicals, or fossil fuels.  These call to mind the syntheses of essential building blocks with alternately damaging potential.