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by Leonard Lehrer
The relationship between the word, the written word, and the painted image has always been one of great fascination to artists from Fra Angelico's version of the angel Gabriel's pronouncement to Mary, to Chagall's ethereal prayers, from the Campbell's Soup can to the pure use of words in Barbara Kruger's art statements. Letters and words become the image itself in Ed Ruscha's many clever and visually astute comments and the virtual calligraphy of Cy Twombly invites us to "read" his "paragraphs." Belief in the word has become, of course, a crucial part of understanding the context in which much contemporary art is created. Theories must be explained in order for an artwork to be viewed with any degree of clarity or appropriateness; the rules of the game, as it were, matter greatly in contemporary cultural gamesmanship.
Carla Lobmier's use of the word is not so much an effort to create a context as much as it is to create an integrated aesthetic—her words become poetry, poetry becomes visual and the visual absorbs and celebrates the context of the word in all its manifestations. Word is both subject and methodology, word is the means of transformation.
At times the play between word and image is the very reason for the painting's being, and upon close examination one sees the pure and uninhibited pleasure Lobmier derives from the process of exploring both visceral paint quality and the meaning, or suggested meaning, of those incorporated words in the paintings. The subject matter of her most recent paintings moves between traditional still life objects, i.e. modest white vase forms, and elongated rectilinear forms to, of all things, chandeliers, and serve to verify the components of her special vision: language, visual puzzles, ambiguity and enigma, familiar and mysterious, classical limitations in contrast to painterly opulence, visual counterparts of poetry and prose, expansion and compression, inhaling and exhaling.
Still lifes are arranged to be viewed as individual paintings or as a whole made up of mosaic-like parts; they are almost hypnotic in their rigorous demands of considering pure rhythm and abstraction. The large scale chandelier paintings are another matter. They are imposing, powerful and radiant, a transformation of the mundane into the sphere of the ecstatic, spinning forms, whirling dervishes in the form of chandeliers. It is the combination of the commonplace with the romantic vision, the suggestion of a word with the spidery arms of a chandelier, that fascinates and compels us to absorb Lobmier's complex demands. These are provocative and confident words and carry with them a profound understanding of where painting has been and where it might consider spending a little more time.
I was born a reader in central Illinois where the reading is good. My B.F.A. in Painting/Drawing from Eastern Illinois University was supplemented with an Art History degree (more reading), followed by an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the University of Illinois. Following a residency in 1999 with the Studio Program at APEX ART in Manhattan, I moved to New York City. My teaching career spans Illinois, Tennessee and New York and includes Pre-Kindergarten children through university students. My paintings, drawings and collages have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are in the permanent collections of Tarble Arts Center, William Rainey Harper College, Sheldon Swope Museum and Whirlpool Corporation. There is a large influence of literature in my work. Poets are permitted the pursuit of the lyrical, the metaphor, beauty, the emotional connection. Can or should images do the same? Yes.
Comments (closed)
Tim O'Leary
2011-06-27 07:01:46
Carla's paintings are just wonderful. I don't miss an opportunity to see them. They are creative and so much her unique style and subjects, sometimes mixing poetry and visual art. I always know when I'm looking at her work and have the pleasure of seeing several works hanging on our walls. Lucky me!
Marilyn Lehrer
2011-06-27 11:06:56
Carla's work reflects her inner beauty and her very soul. Lovely.
Joan O'Leary
2011-06-28 09:43:37
Carla's use of color, light and shape transcends the "real" and holds a mystery to be solved. Experiencing, rather than figuring them out, are the joy of her words and her paints. She is to be continually discovered.