I’m in the last days of preparation for my show, Facets, that opens June 11 in Alexandria, VA at the Principle Gallery. Today I put on the final few hanging wires on the backs of the paintings, finish the necessary paperwork and documentation then wrap and load the paintings for tomorrow’s delivery.
This is often a hectic, anxious day but this year I find it strangely calm thus far. Maybe it comes from the relief of seeing the endpoint in preparations for this show or perhaps it comes from finally seeing this group of work together, now fully framed and moved from raw images into their now presentable form.
Often a piece, especially one on paper, undergoes a startling transformation once it is put in a setting for presentation. I think of the painting as a gem of sorts and the matting and framing as the setting that holds this gem and allows it to be seen in its best light. Sometimes a piece takes on a sparkle, a different life even, when seen in the setting of its frame rather than as a raw image on paper. I see this often with Cheri when she will see a painting in the studio before framing and give little response then will react so much more stronglyand positively after it is fully presented.
Seeing this group together and fully presented gives it a wholeness and allows me to see the continuity in it that I knew was there, which is reassuring. It looks like it will hang together well and the pieces will play well off one another, each exhibiting its own individual strength and acting as a complement to those around it, reinforcing them. There is a great blend in this group of boldness and softness, strong colors and muted tones. Like the name of the show implies, this group shows many of the facets of the body of my work to date.
The piece above, In the Golden Light, is part of this show. It is a work on ragboard and measures a little over 11″ by 25” and is matted and presented in a 20″ by 34″ frame. I think it’s a prototypical example of my work, one that strikes close to the core of everything I want to show and say in my work. It’s a painting that flowed out easily and gracefully near the end of the final days of painting for this show, almost as though it were the final performance after months of dress rehearsals. There was no struggle with this piece and there was a sense of a type of destiny in it even as the first section of paint began to dry. I can’t fully explain this. I used the word gracefully earlier in the paragraph and there was a type of grace in the painting of this, an ease of motion and a confidence that I seek yet seldom find, in my work or in my life.
I think I can say the same for much of this group of work. I think there’s an ease and a confidence in this work that arises from coming to terms with where I am as a painter, reveling in what I am and setting aside concerns about what I am not. I think it comes through quite evidently in this show.
At least it does for me. I can’t predict what others might see…
Redtree Times 