Surfs up

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on June 13, 2023 at 1:54pm

 

Curator’s Comments:

Surfs Up captured my attention recently, appearing in a random selection of past works on the site. While it isn’t designated as a diptych by description or title, I feel as though there’s a natural vertical break in the center of the image that offers a visual rest.  The painting’s title and blue color palette contextualize the viewer’s recognition of large crested waves, but I also enjoy imagining it as a more abstracted representation of the tumult of life’s peaks and valleys.  The small figure is tossed in the near-violent surge, and in a broader reading of the piece, has lost her footing and is pitched downward.  It’s satisfying to look back through your other works on the site and recognize a similar connection between the figure-ground relationships.  While the other figures are arguably presented in more stable postures, they seem bound in the wriggling movement of their environments. The result is equally destabilizing and pleasing.