November 9, 2012
Pat Stanley’s latest series of paintings, Convergence, are striking, ethereal, monumental in a deep philosophic way, mystical, Surreal, and yet they are also realist works.
She uses high-resolution photographs from the Hubble Observatory as inspiration and guides for the imagery that she paints: galaxies, nebulas. She also has photographed the abandoned houses in whose skeletons she paints massive starbursts of light and energy, of mystical grace.
In this series of paintings, there are no people. In this series of paintings, our domiciles, our shells are abandoned, empty. Does she paint a post-apocalyptic world? I asked Pat this, and she said, “Perhaps…” But I could tell this was not her intent. She paints the dream of us in our emptiness in a universe bearing in on our memories.
When we are empty of the Twitter of our lives, spiritual forces can sweep in with vision.
How can you speak in this room of silent ghostly houses and massive sweeping star systems? Gaze. Let the stars enter.
Artist’s statement:
CONVERGENCE is a meditation on space, time and memory. Hubble telescope images and abandoned structures are used as reference points to examine the tensions between phenomena in distant parts (and times) of the Universe to the remnants of our manufactured environment. Vivid renderings of galaxies and nebulae are interlaced with monochromatic images of deserted buildings and neglected spaces. The work is at once engaging and disturbing; immediate and evocative.
Pat Stanley
