A friend of mine had posted a photo of her husband walking their dog in a snowy wood. I was quite taken with the image of the bare trees silhouetted against the snow but didn’t really give it a second thought until I saw Marina napping on the bed. s previously discussed, she never ceases to inspire me. It may be anachronistic but she is, and always has been, my muse. The sheet reminded me of snow and then the trees, the finished piece formed in my mind immediately. Putting the figure in the snow would just be silly and a bit too close to surrealism, a movement I was never particularly fond of, than I care to go. I am particularly fond of the dynamic between the figure and ground in this piece. I’d rather suggest dreams than illustrate them.
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“Souvenir” 2013, Gouache, casien and wood, 4,5″x7″ open
When I first met my wife in Oxford, we would spend entire afternoons wandering it’s streets. We must have trod every bit of earth in the entire town over the course of that month. Going back with her years later I was struck with a “this is where it all began” feeling and wanted something to keep that for me, a souvenir. The song Souvenir, by OMD, always reminded me of Marina over the years we were apart, despite the absolutely horrid video. This is kind of a visual companion for the tune I carried around in my head for decades.
Lawrence Valenza 