The Artists "Review" Artists Project was launched on June 30, 2008. Below is a "review" of Susan Tolbert's work, How We Got Here, written by Sondra Arkin. Susan provided the second jpeg, an image of Looking North, as well as a brief response to Sondra's "review."
Susan currently resides in Norfolk, VA, and Sondra lives in Washington, D.C.
If you would like to participate in this project, please email me at jtkirkland [at] gmail [dot] com.
How We Got Here
Oil on Canvas
48'' x 48"
2008
The "Review"
"How We Got Here" appears more of a personal narrative, rather than universal, and challenges the viewer to deconstruct the iconographic clues. There might be the context of a body of work that makes this easier, but on its own, the meaning seems elusive. Is it personal or political? Both? Does it start in 1944 with an Arab who is a sugar daddy and a movie star-struck woman, who both smoke? Is the artist the Donald Duck about to shoot off his beak (nose) despite his face? Are the camels and oil and corn references to our current energy crisis? Are the Camels and the Lucky Strikes also oil references? And are the sheep just clones of the same problems? Is the bluebird one of happiness? Or some museum item? What is the meaning of the Pickar (?) black Americana item? Is it molasses? Is that the rate at which we are solving our problems?
It is difficult to tell how the paint is handled, how the surface is treated, or any of the virtues of the actual technique in the jpg except to say that there is a great deal of detail, the colors are crisp and unifying, and that the composition forces the viewer to return to the individual objects repeatedly. But in reality, would its center hold the viewer, or would attention just drift off the edges? It seems to "read" from the upper left corner to the lower right edge.
A bunch of disparate items can imbue a narrative, and I am a big fan of art being a result of what the artist intends and what the viewer brings. This painting is telling a story; I just wish I understood it all better.
By Sondra Arkin
Looking North
Oil on panel
6" x 11"
2007
The Response
I appreciate Sondra Arkins thoughtful comments on my painting as it is a new series for me. I was surprised that she could not read the piece easily. The orange oil truck following the camel towards a Life Magazine speaks of our lives built around a dependency on foreign oil as if there was an Arab sugar daddy. The image of a house torn in half across from a Payday candy bar seemed fairly obvious to me. The plastic bird refers to "bird brained" and the sheep stencils to following along like sheep--though the interpretation of clones is also interesting.
Previous "Reviews":
Pam Farrell on Ken Weathersby
Paula McCullough on Aric Calfee
Lee Gainer on Leigh Waldron-Taylor
Aric Calfee on Paula McCullough
Matthew Ballou on Heather Levy
Giovanni Garcia-Fenech on TJ Norris
TJ Norris on Giovanni Garcia-Fenech
Susan Tolbert on Mary Klein
Heather Levy on Gail Vollrath
Sharon Butler on Matthew Ballou
Mark L. Power on Steven Alexander
Steven Alexander on Mark L. Power
Molly Norris on M. Trigos
Ken Weathersby on Joseph Barbaccia
Somebody really digs Manny Farber.
Posted by: Jeffry | Friday, August 08, 2008 at 05:13 PM