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You were free. The wind was blowing.
60" x 72"
oil, spray paint and chalk on canvas
2011
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Artist Statement
Amidst a dazzling array of blown glass chandeliers and gaudy mirrored surfaces, a cast-metal eagle is about to lift off into flight. I see this same eagle in a handful of “antique” stores around Union Square and Chinatown in San Francisco. Antique stays in quotes because, like the premise of the stores, the authenticity of the merchandise is questionable at best. Potted plants, chandeliers, gold-framed paintings and neo-baroque chatchkis placed next to swatches of vibrating patterns and colors disorient, over-stimulate and entertain. An eclectic mixture of culture and style without any concern over correct historical taxonomies populates these spaces as it does my paintings; they celebrate their own chaos and constitute their own absurd, fake reality. Antique stores appeal to the broadest possible cross-section of tastes, to tourists and art lovers. They represent the idea of the antique like exhibitions of Matisse or Monet represent the idea of painting.
Each painting starts with photographic source material that I abstract and collage to create a new space. Thick mounds of paint globs and drips slip and slide off the canvas over washes of color, spray paint and gestural line. This pastiche reflects the variety of light, textures and cultural objects that are jammed together in the stores. My main concerns are fairly modernist: how to capture the sparkly light coming from these objects with value rather than metallic paint or glitter and how to use my materials in unexpected ways.
Contact
sarah.thibault@gmail.com
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