FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 3 - October 31, 1999
Opening reception on Saturday, September 18 from 7 to 9 PM
MARION MEYER CONTEMPORARY ART
354 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Tel (949) 497-5442 Fax (949) 497-6342
E-mail: meyerart@gte.net
The new paintings by Deborah Paswaters prove to be viscerally challenging; emoting new visual sensations of the figure as well as that of the abstract soul from which they are made. Not often does one artistically view the figure in an abstract relationship. Such expressiveness between the gestural figure in combination with an explosive mixture of media is a rarity in the art world today. It is the sinuousness of the body combined with a built palette that brings weight to this subjective matter--subjects witnessed daily yet rarely is the time taken to interpret.
Neither modeled nor simply posed, these painted figures are "captured" in repose, in positions, which may be interpreted as elation, dance, despair or depression. Paswaters leaves this interpretation open to the viewer and plays with the demeanor of the witness, where state of mind can determine the interpretation of the images themselves. In such paintings as Double Venus the artist combines the paletta relationship between the two figures. The execution of the female figures transgresses from their own lightness into the heavy boldness of the sculptural Venus. This transgression creates changes through texture while line and gesture leads the viewer from the obviousness of the familiar into the void of the abstract. This symbiosis aids the audience with gentle explanation while assaulting the senses with both depth and disarray. While not attempting to shock, this approach nonetheless confronts the viewer with emotional answers in search of begging questions. The meaning could perhaps be explained but the explanation would not satisfy all interpretations. Therefore the final tome can never be written, leaving an inexhaustible length of roads and byways within the landscape of the painting. It is the obviousness of the unobvious that makes Paswaters a viable painter within the new generation of artists. A painter that has refused to turn her back on the past while racing to meet the future.
In the large canvas Rite of Spring, we have not only a series of figures but also ones that appear to be communing through isolation. The overall gestures could be ones of peace, pain or resolve. In combination with the granular surface of the oil paint, an interesting challenge to the senses is created, as is the question of what is being represented. The work is raucous yet gentle, dimensioned yet fragmented, the rough-edged feeling of things familiar and worn. Is it we who are isolated? Is life merely a dream state? With perspective of both motion and stop motion, the image doesn't necessarily lead to despair but in turn challenges the viewer to determine the emotion of the "victims" within themselves.
As with all the paintings of this series--such as the emotive Delay II--the gestural rhythm creates the obvious while the theme creates the fantasy. This itself lifts the viewer into the next realm within the meaning of art, one that both allows and forces the viewer to make judgments of the story being told and the conversation it holds with its witness. It is the captivation that creates the expectation, allowing the audience new dialogue with the painting (and the painter) upon each viewing. It is this dialogue that makes the difference between painter and witness. It is this dialogue that allows silent conversation between artist and interpreter, thus living up to the expectations that art presents to the viewer.
Paswaters steals from experiences and then translates them onto canvas. Outlining anonymous souls while capturing them as they live in an instance of form. Paswaters watches in a world where gesture equates state of mind as well as a state of existence; a chaotic perfection. Working light with the dark or dark with the light, allowing paint to clot and surround the "being", Paswaters presents the most important symbol--the figure--which in turn represents all of us. This is the essence of balance.
Paswaters signifies in these paintings an overall sense of humanity, stretching into emotive space though choice of medium. That extremes are represented in these works helps define the balance in individual humanity. What Paswaters is showing is that there is no perfection in figure (or soul) but a trade off between the lighter and darker elements encompassing modern life today--the search to find the beauty in the balance...and beyond.
Return to Deborah Paswaters Essays
Return to Deborah Paswaters