Saturday, September 14, 2013

ArtPrize 2013 Entry

"A Triptych of Icons"
Venue: Monroe Community Church (800 Monroe Ave. NW)


16" x 20"
watercolor and ink on Arches hot press paper

Artist Statement:  

“A Triptych of Icons” is a brief glimpse of a larger, as-yet unimagined, story.  The characters, settings, and the larger world they inhabit are presented here without any context, save what the viewer chooses to create for them.  I have some vague, ill-formed notions about what the larger narrative behind these pieces might be, but I present this little snapshot with the hope that viewers can wonder and create stories for themselves.

The vibrant colors and intricate patterns are meant to resonate with familiar, perhaps nostalgic ideas of beauty, while the grim, surreal elements of the iconography are meant to be a bit unsettling.  Hopefully, the overall effect compels people to linger just a moment longer as they attempt to reconcile the seemingly contradictory impressions.  

My first goal is to show people something new.  Beyond that, I would like for viewers to see something they can appreciate as being beautiful and imaginative, but that also challenges and knocks them off balance just a little.  Hopefully the experience enriches folks, and a small piece of it can persist in some dark, beautiful corner of their memory.