I’ve seen many places, but none of them have hit me quite like Istanbul. The pattern and design of the city went straight to my core. I felt indescribably connected to 1700 years of un-worried art making as I looked up in the Hagia Sophia to see centuries old hand painted imperfect patterns in a structure of such monumental spiritual importance and changing history. It was a reminder of what I love about making paintings. And so this body of work for me is a return to a pure and playful time of art making when there was freedom to push materials and experiment without boundaries, rules, or expectations. My objective was to access that primeval element that allows one to create without revision and refinement - where the most important part of the process is the approach, and the intent is to enjoy the work.
Unconstrained by a specific story or theme, these paintings are a cumulative reference to Istanbul in literal ways such as the Bosphorus, the animals there that are treated like important citizens and a celebration of the visually rich colors that saturate the patterns and spaces. Sometimes portrayed with a sense of humor and sometimes with nostalgia and melancholy are human and animal subjects imbedded within repeated patterns and blocks of color that act as anchors to balance small spots of activity. Pieces of paint and collaged canvas orbit and lead the viewer through the painting like a road map. Horizon lines are borrowed iconography, indicative of children’s art. Themes of irony, contradiction, humor and tragedy, continue throughout my work. These paintings aren’t so much painted as they are built. By wiping, scraping and sanding layers of paint, a symbiotic relationship is formed with little or no preconceived plan on the end result.
View the show in the gallery or below. For inquiries and information please contact maryann@madorangallery.com or call 918.748.8700.
