I’m in the last few days of preparation before the delivery of my new show, Avatars, to the West End Gallery in Corning, which opens on July 15, next Friday,with an opening that starts at 5 PM. This is one of the paintings from that show, an 11″ by 11″ piece that I call Family Pictures.
It’s a continuation of the work that started primarily as black and gray work and has slowly evolved into more of a sepiatone with dashes of color. The sepia adds to the feeling of old family photos that gives this piece its name. I see the red chair and the self-referencing picture hanging in this scene as the basis for this painting. As the title of the show implies, they are both avatars for the living, in this case descending generations of a family.
At least that’s what I think it might mean.
I was intrigued by this piece from the moment it was done and find myself going back to it over and over. I can’t really put a finger on it but there’s something here that draws me in personally, that poses questions that I can’t yet answer. Actually, the questions themself are enigmatic and hard to discern. But I keep looking with the hope that questions and answers will reveal themselves at some point. But while I’m waiting the simple geometry of the composition is somehow soothing and protective and the red of the chair and the picture pulse like a heartbeat in that sepia room, creating a rhythm that soon blends with my own.
Like looking at family pictures.
Redtree Times 