Womenand Their Vessels, after Picasso, Oil on linen, 24" x 30"
This group of strong women convene, in solidity, opacity, solidarity. Vessels symbolize spirit, the womb, change, perhaps, as it is rising with the still transparent waters. Palette temperature ranges from fire to ice
Varying levels of representation of light on form, layered solvent-free oil painting approaches and a tie to the change process itself move through my work. In these paintings (3 of 14) I co-opted Picasso’s classical figures, fifty years after his death (which coincided with the reversal of fifty years of protected reproductive rights in the US). His idealized and/or disproportioned, outsized women are reimagined with and as vessels. Glitchy shifts of point of view and depth of field, rhythms of transparency and opacity, are used as reverberations of both personal and societal change processes. Low light, circular composition and ghastly palette in Whale and I, echo the theme. In Women and Their Vessels, after Picasso (based on his 1921 pencil drawing) fluid edges and cool transparencies contrast the vivid heat of the group of women, surrounded by rising waters. In New Blue, the crouched figure confined in the pictorial space, radiates light while dissolving into the bright background.