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CHRISTINE
CONLEY
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In the summer of 2001 I seemed to see my palette for the first time. In one of those lovely epiphanies that make life worth living, I saw the leftover paint on the palette as subject matter for my art. Each separate area of paint was unique, interesting, beautiful. I immediately started making drawings and paintings of these separate areas or pieces of paint. As I started working with the paint pieces I felt the absurdity of using such material for my subject matter. After all, the paint left on the palette is leftovers, remains, garbage. So at times, this work seems to me to have an affinity with Dada or Fluxus. As Dick Higgins wrote in "A Child's History of Fluxus," "Why does everything I see that's beautiful like cups and kisses and sloshing feet have to be made into just a part of something fancier and bigger? Why can't I just use it for its own sake?" In a sort of variation on this theme, working with the pieces became a celebration of the details of my life (as a painter, my details include the paint pieces). And instead of belittling them I tend to enlarge these details dramatically. I felt another pull as I started this body of work. I have always been a representational painter, and frankly I've often had trouble understanding or entering abstract art. My current work is actually representational, but I've become aware that some people read it as abstract. This paradox intrigues me. All painting is in one way abstract (it's not the real object or emotion it tries to represent), and yet it all represents something (if only the act of applying paint to canvas). Making these paintings has pushed me to an understanding beyond my former painting practice, where the distinction between types of painting matters less. I've also learned that some viewers see floral imagery, anatomical references, or fairy tale imagery in these paintings. Personally, I see cartoon-like creatures in most of the pieces.
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