Memory Suite
acrylic on board
46'X36"
Artist Statement
I have always seen the pursuit of my art as a journey in seek of answers, as a way to reveal a kernel of truth, through the use of a visual language. Employing a Socratic approach, subconscious questions are raised, the perceived answers unveiling themselves, only to lead to more questions. Slowly, this visual question and answer leads step by step to reveal what I hope will be a piece of universal truth.
My fascination is with what is just under the surface, obscured from full view. The expression of this fascination is evident in my work with the incorporation of preliminary lines revealed, over worked surfaces scratched and scraped, images erased, redrawn, replaced and/or re-painted. The suggestion of objects, figures and obscured words just below the surface seek to stimulate the viewer’s own subconscious thoughts and memories. I believe that what is under the surface, just out of view, carries equal or greater weight than what is on the surface; it is the historical makeup of the painting contrasting the attempted order on the surface with the chaos that preceded it. It is a way of looking at the past of the piece to reveal something not quite tangible in the present, an archeological dig of the mind.
I am compelled by these themes of reveal and obscure, of the effects of the past on the present, of the traces of thoughts and memories, hinting at near answers.
nadina tandy