Alien Brain Drinks the Koolaid, 2006 © Lynn Talbot
If you think that still life painting is the stuff of art history books and dusty
museums, then think again. New York based artist Lynn Talbot’s quirky, vibrant work
takes the genre of the still life to a whole new level. While her traditional, carefully composed arrangements
of fruit, vegetables, flowers and pastries — with accompanying porcelain and glassware — recall the
works of Dutch masters, abstract patterns or even text hover in the upper half of the image like clouds
or tapestries. Similar to Mandalas, targets or patterns in Op Art, the abstract shapes seem to appear
from another dimension, as the work Alien Brain Drinks the Koolaid (2006) suggests.
In this painting an oval form made of many colored triangles seems to be sucking up the contents of
the still life below, which include a bright glass of Kool-Aid-like liquid, several dishes of pastries
and fruit — all precisely arranged, almost invitingly, on a faux marble table top.
In
most of her paintings the realms of the abstract and the ordinary do not appear to be connected with
each other, and the link is more conceptual, as in Pitchbook Fantasy (2005). In
this work and others, Lynn Talbot mirrors the intricate symbolism of traditional still lifes, which
often served as a moral warning about the fleeting nature of time. Her objects seem painstakingly selected
and placed, while her themes are complex and personal. Your Crazy Beauty Unmanned Me
(2006) has an exotic and animated mood. A flame-like apparition recalling patterns in Buddhist art hovers
above an arrangement with two yellow ceramic birds and tropical fruit. The title hints at an emotional
or spiritual encounter — or a combination of the two. Certainly the two birds at the bottom of the image
seem to be eyeing one another.
Beyond an illustration of the concepts
of the real and the ideal, her work evokes a luminous, quiet thoughtfulness while maintaining a colorful
immediacy and even a hint of pop. Ultimately the true subject matter of her work lies beneath the surface
of color, light and pattern: “For me the paintings explore the psychological continuity between observed
and unobservable reality, and express my interest in how the still life tradition uses the seeming static
and unchanging nature of still life objects to highlight ... the illusory nature of existence and solidity.”
Kool-Aid
is a trademark of Kraft Foods Company
Link:
http://www.lynntalbot.com/pages/galleryii.html
Alien Brain Drinks the Koolaid, 2006 © Lynn Talbot
