"A portrait isn't a fact but an opinion-an occasion rather than a truth." -Richard Avedon
2012-13 finds the return of portraiture to my work. It has been heralded with two best of show awards at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, curated by LACMA curator Howard Fox and at the Atkinson Gallery SBCC, curated by Sarah Cunningham, director.
The work in this exhibition is titled "Looking Out, Looking In" with each panel given its' own poetic title: (upper left then clockwise) Nikon Voyeur; Handle Me with Care, Sakura-"Cherry Blossom"; Feeling the Dull Shadow of Obsolete.
The portraits invite you, the viewer, to participate in the complex dynamic that exists between painter, subject and viewer. You, the viewer, may enter the equation time, place or even cultures removed as you interpret and respond to the subject. You "looking in" to the eyes of the portrayed and the portrayed "looking out" to you; what truths or connections does the portrait reveal? A portrait ought to tell you something of the subject's past and suggest something of their future; with those truths, then, left to you, the viewer.
2013 |
