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Artist's Statement
In
my mixed media abstract paintings I have set out to explore both the visual effects of text
and its tendency to carry meaning whether intended or not. Although I often
present words, letters, and symbols merely as shapes and patterns, so accustomed
are we to interpreting these as narrative that it is sometimes impossible to see
the forms alone. Color, too, gives added connotations to the words. Some pieces
have been deliberately engineered to appear theatrical and, in fact, include
pages from Shakespeare's plays. Some have the glow or patina of old manuscripts,
while nevertheless containing mere mechanical reproductions of calligraphy. As I
paint, I also write annotations 'in the margins', commenting on a particular
text or simply expressing separate thoughts and ideas.
As a teacher of Literature, an avid reader and writer, books have shaped
my identity and given direction to my ideas. Each novel I encounter affects the
meaning of subsequent novels.
Hand annotations in the margins of used books give a clue to the
reactions of other readers before me, often very different from my own.
In theatres in London, where I lived for most of my life, the words of
well-known plays
were constantly being reinterpreted from one production of a play to the
next.
I
have adopted a method of painting with multiple transparent veils of paint
through which collaged images or words appear and disappear, representing layers
of memory and understanding.
Lately I have been painting in encaustic (hot wax), a method which
involves etching and incising. Often the process itself takes over from
intention and I find myself erasing or covering messages which originally I
intended to use to communicate an idea more directly.
Thoughts get buried as others surface.
Almost like the act of reading itself.
Ann Baldwin