#1025 Stonewall at 50

30″ x 48″ (77x122cm) Acrylic on canvas. For the Stonewall 50th anniversary Invitational
in June. Marsha P. Johnson, Jackie Hormona, Zasou Nova, Marty Robinson, Morty Manford, Robin Souza and Silvia Rivera: names engraved in this painting, some visible, some not, but all–and all who joined the uprising,  present in love and gratitude for their courage and rage.

#1025 Stonewall50.JPG
View more work at Saatchi Art, and on my web portfolio: ART BY WILLARD For photos on this blog, click MY ART on the right panel and scroll down.

#1020 Names

No. 2 study for a larger piece commemorating Stonewall at 50. Names of Marsha P. Johnson,Silvia Rivera,Jackie Hormona,Zasou Nova, Marty Robinson, Morty Manford, Robin Souza.
#1020 Study 2 Stonewall names.JPGView more work at Saatchi Art, and on my web portfolio: ART BY WILLARD For photos on this blog, click MY ART on the right panel and scroll down.

#1003 Tattered Web of Consciousness

#1003 Tattered Web of Consciousness 16″ x 20″ (40×50) Acrylic on Canvas
#1003 Tattered web of consciousness.JPG

In thinking about representation and abstraction in art, I’ve been inspired by Levi Paul Bryant–in particular, where he writes about the intersecting rings of the material and the symbolic. I think that abstract art, when it moves beyond pleasing the eye, can present the viewer with an enigma, an aporia, that suggests the possibility of symbolic meaning–while denying its realization. If, as I believe, all of our encounters with material reality, are invested with latent symbolic power–by forestalling that power it’s emergence, retaining it at the threshold, just out of reach– where it cannot be translated into language, or interpreted as anything other than what it is—mind, imagination, and perception, by this denial of closure, will remain radially open, and in this, we might yet find a path to revolutionary vision.

 

View more work at Saatchi Art, and on my web portfolio: ART BY WILLARD For photos on this blog, click MY ART on the right panel and scroll down.