Blobs of color ("haystacks") evoke impressions of human - heads, bodies, fingerprints.
Haystacks began in small collage format ["Haystacks, Small; & to breaking the rules”] (can you find all the rules that have been broken?) The second set of Haystacks are four paintings, including two herein ["Siblings", "Windy City"], of four haystacks replicated in variations exploring the relationship between static and dynamic bodies.
More complexity and color schemes explore current events through positioning and dynamic elements portraying relationships between and among individuals, sub-groups and groups. ["Increasingly Isolated", "Crowd-Sourcing / Social Media", "Senate Hearings"]
Haystacks, Small
& to breaking the rules. In this small collage that initiated the series, blobs / bodies appear more static; melding at the edges; such that spacing, color placement and positioning define the space.
09-23-2021, collage on poster board, 12x18
Siblings
Siblings is the third painting of variations of four. It looks at relative relationships with each other; rubbing off on each other (or not) and in various stages of reflection. Viewer is invited to provide their own interpretation.
11-18-2021, acrylic on canvas, 36x48x1.5
Windy City
Use of swirling paint to show dynamic movement is suggestive of tornadoes and twisters with the power to move large objects; familiar to the artist's youth - growing up in Kansas.
12-13-2021, acrylic on canvas, 36x48x1.5
Increasingly Isolated
The piece began as a representation of the relationship between a mother and her daughter's struggle for independence and morphed into a representation of Putin's seeming belief in Russia's right to control the Ukraine through violence. The hard bar(s) act as hard edges of a mirror in which Putin see only his own reflection as he continues his terror campaign bombing of Ukraine. White edges (fog of war) encroach upon the image as Putin's tunnel vision continues to narrow. This piece also figures in the Ukraine Series.
Published in Observica, October 30, 2022.
03-06-2022, acrylic on canvas, 36x36x1.5
Crowd Sourcing / Social Media
The first work in an even larger format (4 ft x 5 ft) is about influence and the tension between movement and static bodies. Individuals send out missives, each seeking to expand their own sphere of connections.
03-31-2022, acrylic on canvas, 48x60x1.5
Senate Hearings
In this painting in a larger format (4 ft x 5 ft), Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson withstands Republican Senators efforts to surround and isolate her with sound and fury while diminishing her record.
Colors represent bodies - Jackson in purple with her family behind her (daughter below her in violet and husband in dark blue); Republican senators in grayish off-white tones (right side of the painting); isolation implied by the white-out surrounding Jackson; with friends and supporters shown in vivid colors to the left.
An impassioned Democratic Senator Corey Booker (represented in red colors, middle upper) reaches down across the divide to offer encouragement and gratitude to the Supreme Court nominee.
This represents not just relationships of groups of individuals with each other, but also the relationships between groups and between individuals within sub-group(s).
04-12-2022, acrylic on canvas, 48x60x1.5
Dancing, Together and Alone
05-11-2022, acrylic on canvas, 48x60x1.5
5 Siblings
06-13-2022, acrylic on canvas, 48x60x1.5
More Cowbell*
10-15-2022, acrylic on canvas, 48x72x1.5