I’ve made a random pick from my newsletter subscriber list and the lucky winner of the artwork below is Charlene Wilcock from Calgary, Alberta. Congratulations Charlene!
‘Empires Collapse’ Digital Composite Printed mounted to Plexiglas. 12” x 8”, 2020
Charlene asked me to write a bit about the inspiration for this piece - so here goes!
I don’t intend my work to have just one specific meaning. It follows more of a dream-logic approach whereby it allows for many different interpretations. So what it means to a viewer is up to them to decide.
My work is ‘open to interpretation’, but I can tell you what was going through my mind when I put this piece together. My artwork has been affected a great deal by the pandemic. It was cool and meditative before, and became dark and nightmarish early in the pandemic. Recently, the work has taken an optimistic turn - there’s hope that we’ll build a better, kinder world once this is over.
The stress of the pandemic has exposed deep fault-lines in our society; brought many problems to the surface. We have a chance to re-imagine and re-build a better society: kinder and less materialistic. There’s optimism in the crisis; light gets in through the cracks!
In the background, there is a half-demolished building. The exterior walls have been taken down so you can see the insides. The dots and pattern lines are from 18th century paintings of aristocrats – people who commissioned paintings of themselves to establish and project power. But in this case, they are dissolving – you can see them and also see through them.
I see the bright colour layers as optimistic. The fruit suggests renewal and the drawing of the hand could represent our work – hopefully building a better world.
What I enjoy in this piece is how your eye keeps moving and you can never see just a single image. You see the different parts and then have to refocus to see the other elements. It always keeps changing!