Elizabeth Cody: Shapes in Dialogue
Pleiades Gallery
Oct. 1, 2024 - Oct. 26, 2024
Elizabeth makes unusual colorful shapes in dialogue with other shapes. She strives for a precise individual color, line, volume and placement on the picture plane. She is interested in how these dimensions affect each other.
It’s in the nature of humans to reflexively seek clues to the story or meaning of the painting. As soon as a shape becomes recognizable, it’s co-opted by the viewer as a meaningful clue in a narrative they want to build around the image. If that enhances the viewer’s interest or emotional response to the painting that’s welcome.
Within an abstract painting, she finds her hand in motion running ahead of her brain and forming the shape of a recognizable thing, like a tulip or a rose. If a viewer wants a painting to say something, these few absentmindedly drawn identifiable objects can be clues, but no more than clues. Remember more often than not the painting isn’t a story; it just is.