SERIOUSLY SILLY:

           Inspired by the following "profound" fortune that I found in my purse:

                "Your ability to see the silly in the serious will take you far."                         

On a “serious” note, I believe the concept in this “fortune” could apply to all of us. It’s so easy to allow the serious parts of life to dominate, or, I suppose, on the other hand, to be a little too flippant overall. It seems there should be a balance between the silly and the serious in our lives. And by silly, I don’t mean stupid. Silly lends itself to being more light-hearted, not so worried or burdened. I think serious is self- explanatory. It just seems “serious” can be too full of itself at times, silly can temper that.

This concept has many pathways to artistic expression. Some, in this show, are non-objective works with contrasting juxtaposed shapes, lines, and colors. Others may be seemingly more figurative, including the sculptural works, still displaying the serious/silly characteristics, but reduced and/or balanced by the visible interactions, and some a mix of all of the above.

A more specific description of some of the pieces might be as follows, high energy stored within a specific space (or spaces), interacting with flatter, perhaps lighter areas of color, with or without added simplistic lines and markings. These spaces convey a slightly serious or impending feeling which is somewhat diffused, as well as contained, by the contrasting area(s).

The energetic or “serious” areas are expressed specifically by the use of close-knit shapes seeming to press against one another, heavy black markings, gradations of shading, and lines within the composition that seem to want to escape the picture plane. The silly/whimsical areas are flatter, simpler and lighter-hearted by comparison, creating somewhat of a balance between what might be termed the silly and the serious.