Half a Life on Canvas
Transformations
By Juxtaposition or Layering
Another relatively simple but effective method of transformation
involves the unexpected juxtaposition of objects, often in ambiguous
contexts or with unusual and incongruous perspectives. These paintings
tend to be disquieting and haunting. As we try to make sense of
the images, we ask, “What’s going on? What does it mean?”
The painting presents us with an image that urges us to go outside
the painting for clarification, but since there is no “outside
the painting,” we are left unsettled and vaguely anxious.
And as always in Gail’s work, the effects are heightened by
the use of color.
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| By far the most frequently used
means of transformation in Gail’s art is a technique
unique (in my experience, at least) to her. It has its roots
in Cubism—the early 20th Century style of breaking an
object into hundreds of planes viewed simultaneously from
innumerable perspectives. But in Gail’s art, the planes
are planes of color, or seemingly of light itself. In paintings
like Renewed Vision and Magic Mountain, the
objects seem to be superimposed on themselves, transparent
as if we’re seeing into them, or into their past. Instead
of seeing various spatial dimensions in a single plane as
in Cubist work, in Gail's art it's as if we are seeing various
times in a single moment. These paintings suggest a view of
the world that recognizes each one as a many, and each many
as a one, and all infused by light.
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