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one woman's collection THE BIG FACE SERIES The Big Face Series began with two works exhibited in a group showing of women artists at the Union Gallery, Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada) July 31 - August 28, 2001. This series has since expanded and may ultimately include up to thirty paintings which may be exhibited as a whole or in part. The following is a statement pertaining to the above mentioned exhibition: The two works exhibited (Marilyn and Frida) represent the beginnings of what I call The Big Face Series. In this series I examine the faces of famous women, some of them immediately recognizable, ie. Marilyn Monroe, and others, less so. In the case of Kahlo, for instance, we have come to associate her almost solely with her self-portraits. If we think of Kahlo, we think of a woman with one eyebrow and a moustache and a great deal of pain - her physical face is rarely seen. With Monroe, we see only her face, a pose - in massive duplication, in numerous manifestations - from old films to blurred images of early Madonna. In this series I have utilized an archaic magnifying device called an "opaque delineascope" (there are modern versions of this machine, I'm told) which serves to project images (in this case, the features of each face) onto canvas. Choosing a close-up view, the precise relationship of the features to each other, their shape and density in terms of light and shadow are established, while the perimeters of the faces are, for the most part, cropped. What occurs then, is an interaction of the features with the edges of the canvas. What one sees is that the relationship of the features to each other is extremely tenuous; the slightest alteration transforms the expression of character, personality and mood and can even obscure recognition. What one realizes is that, given that the variables are extremely limited - eyes, nose, mouth, etc, all fall into more or less the same place on a face - there exists infinite variations of relationships. What renders someone recognizable and distinct, what expresses a mood and something of a life is, in proportional terms, defined by a matter of millimetres and less. A second, but not lessor, intrigue with The Big Face Series derives from the exploration of a cross-section of women who have been, in some way, distinguished within a variety of backgrounds and fields. Some will be familiar - household names - others, not at all. As representations of some of the women who have contributed to the public definition and perception of woman - whether from behind the scenes or plastered on billboards - this series hopes to gather together female "personalities" who would rarely, if ever, have been juxtaposed. There is an element of choice, albeit; the paintings represent women who are selected, not pulled from a hat,. Although randomness has its attraction, that certain women are chosen by one individual is - on the macrocosmic scale and range of history, geography, occupation and diversity of life - somewhat haphazard in itself. Subjectively, individuals are attracted to certain personalities; we accumulate collections of icons, some of which are shared by others. This series, beginning with Frida and Marilyn, will gather together one woman's collection." As this series expands it also contorts to include not only the famous but the infamous and others who have defined, by death or deed, weakness or accomplishment - well known or obscure - a universal portrait of "woman." |
