This work is an exploration of journalistic painting.
A photograph in a newspaper doesn’t last long enough.
Some of the people depicted in these paintings
used their art as a tool to communicate with.
Some used music, the spoken word, civil disobedience or protest.
Some are singing and some are screaming others still crying and laughing.
It is not only about racism and war, but about emotion.
It is the harnessing of this raw emotion that is the very basis of art.
I am interested in those emotions, how they play on a person’s face.
How I can see it in the eye of the singer or hear it in the voice of the
speaker.
Something in me knows it and recognizes it as my own.
It is that moment of compassion that I am trying to find in these images.
Social
unrest, police brutality, war and racism are realities that many face
daily,
yet the tendency of society is to engage in a kind of collective amnesia.
When this happens, it’s easy to become complacent, especially when
we are not directly affected by the suffering much of the world is experiencing.
It’s “out there” somewhere that people are being blown
up by car bombs and chopped up with machetes. The contrast between the
ugly truth and the beautiful paint is compelling to me as an artist and
hopefully to the viewer as well. Perhaps these paintings will help allow
people to look just that much longer and think more about the real conditions
others are living in, many as a direct result of our government’s
doctrines.
If
you don’t know who some of these people are, I hope these paintings
inspire you to take the time to read about their lives and learn the history
of the civil rights movement both in the us and abroad.
The
choice to work in miniature focuses the mind, condenses the frozen moment
in time and makes the dose of reality all that much more potent. It is
As if the image is a window and the layers of wood, layers of time built
up underneath what we see with the naked eye. Formally, the scale choice
allows for a greater expressiveness in the brushwork for this particular
artist at this particular moment.
contact
Lopi at ipol@lopilaroe.com
Read
personal bio here.
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