Hard Rain: Late Works of Mary Hambleton
The exhibit, Hard Rain: Late Works of Mary Hambleton, was works of art that Mary created that reflected life during cancer. All of her pieces were aesthetically pleasing. They had good flow, unity through common colors, and strong geometric shapes. After viewing the pieces closely I could tell how much time and effort was put into them. The shire complexity of the works was astounding. You could actually see all the layers placed on top of one another. I stood staring at one of the works trying to figure out how she made the lines look sunken in and then realized that she either carved away some of the paint or put multiple layers on the outer edges to create that depth. I was awed at how much she was able to get done while fighting her cancer. A few of her pieces I was drawn more to than others.
The first one that caught my eye went by the name Untitled. This piece had a black background and had curved lines in the middle. At the top of the page appeared to be a moon. In the upper right, lower right, and left middle were bright red dots. Now, from far away the only interesting thing was the high contrast between the bright red dots, off white lines, and pitch-black background. However, when you move in closer and tilt your head to the right, the white curved lines form the shape of a dove midflight. This piece could mean/represent multiple things, but one sticks out the most in my mind. I think that this represents how if we just look at things for face value it will be aesthetically pleasing, but when we look closer we see something completely different. At first the curvy lines exhibit playfulness and happiness, but underneath it is the dove. To me the dove in flight shows that she is on the way to peace, accepting what is happening. She is wearing a mask to show that all is well, but if you look closely, then you see that it is a lie. She is working hard to get to that point, but was not there.
The other piece that caught my eye was Offering Red that was made in 2004. This one looks like a present with a strip of heavily textured wood to the right. The “present” has a maroon/red paint job with 4 thin, navy blue lines that go vertically down it. The “bow” is a pile of little blocks that are a vibrant red. The textured part to the right is black with green and yellow dry brushing over it. I see this piece as saying: with good things, bad things are close behind. The “present” is a gift, a good thing and the textured part is bad because it is distorted, hiding/not showing its true self. In addition, the green dry brushing is contrasting strongly to the red gift. The contrast means that there is a conflict between the two and the greatest conflict known is good vs. bad. I see the black texture as after the gift because we read left to right, thus we look at objects the same way. So, due to the design of the painting it is the last thing we see.
Overall, all of Mary Hambleton’s works make me think on a deeper level because I want to know what the meaning behind it is. Knowing that she did these pieces when she had cancer has made me think along the lines of being near death.
Questions:
Does she work with geometric shapes due to her pieces having so much meaning, causing more contrast? (simple vs. deep and complex vs. shallow)
What does the “bow” from Offering Red mean, if it means anything at all?
Did she favor dark colors because she was going through a dark time in her life or because they were her favorite colors and she wanted to cheer herself up?