Primary Forms with a Bold Function

I like the slight melancholy mystery of these images. In general, the softened color palette and contrast evokes a faded memory, but the primary forms have a bold function.

`Evolution´ employs a primordial form, spiraling up out of the water like a mythic sea creature. I also see the faintly grainy quality and washed out magenta tonality as harkening back to old photographic documentary film, though I´m unsure of the media/process actually employed here. I find the vertical orientation is also unexpected for the surreal landscape, as the weighty spiral form doesn´t appear able to sustain its upward thrust for long, as it curls into itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The piece entitled `Liz´ is an enticing picture as well; some more direct photographic reference to lizards is evident, but there is also a diffused manipulation of the image that muffles direct or overt pictorial representation. The resulting image calls to mind pictographic symbolism from a host of ethnic traditions and artistic eras. In this way, `Liz´ reminds me of a mellowed Florence Putterman painting. So the piece seems less about the natural subject depicted, and more about the state of flux, or evanescent movement. http://artists2artists.net/photo/liz

 

(Written on May 11, 2013 by resident curator Kristen T Woodward, Professor of Art at Albright college in Reading PA, USA )