Artwork > Mixed Media on Canvas and Panels

Conversations We Never Had: Aesthetics, Content, Installation

The title of the triptych came about from conversations regarding a theme for this exhibition at the Art Museum of South Texas that became “The Art of Work”.

From a professional view, Aesthetics, Content and Installation (or presentation) are addressed as I teach my classes and critique my students’ work in my job as a Professor of Art. They are also considered every moment I work in my studio.

My recent studio work has been addressing the traditional still life set-ups used by the early Dutch painters. I have taken aesthetic cues from the paintings in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in some cases mimicked them, and learned to simulate the natural light that created the chiaroscuro, or the quality of being partly in shadow.
Images and objects used in these works are close to me. Yes, large kittens are kitsch, but they’re mine and I love them. It’s a risk. How cute can you get and still be taken seriously? Are the perfect flowers, fruits and vegetables real? The line between real and fake is blurred and secretive. What about the rocks, USB cords, backgrounds? Autobiography winds through this blackness with the use of common household objects, nostalgic pearls, labradorite and a visual journal of places I have been.

The title “Conversations We Never Had: Aesthetics, Content, Installation” contributes to the narrative feel of the work. Physical conversations were not a part of the development of this work. The conversations with myself that did occur were ethereal, without words and far more meaningful because they represent the time and thought within the art-making process.

These artworks are digital images printed on canvas, stretched on stretcher bars, painted in places with acrylics, mineral pigments and glitter, then varnished.