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Out of Isolation #9
Exploring the world opened up by a work of art
This week’s showcase:
Carlos Gomez Mojica
“Dialogo Con Mis Excesos”
Charcoal on canvas, 55″ x 71″

Coping in a time of Isolation and unease — as seen in Art.

Carlos Gomez Mojica’s “Dialogo Con Mis Excesos” (Dialog With My Excesses) posits as many questions as it answers. Still, this mesmerizing charcoal drawing (yes, really, it’s not a photograph) opens up a world of contemplation that deserves revisiting time and again. For me, I keep coming back because of the insane realism with charcoal that Gomez has mastered, and also the sheer curiosity of his narrative.

At first blush the easy inference of “See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil” plays out as a simplistic preface, but the artist’s title invites us to dig deeper. “Who’s in dialog with whom?” “Who or what are the Excesses?” And “What’s that gauze all about?”

To me, several things emerge:

  • The agonizingly rendered gauze, a binding element between the three figures, both protective and debilitating at the same time.
  • The penetrating gaze of the girl (right) looking directly at the viewer, disarming and unpredictable (what does she know?).
  • The two eyeless Ravens that are casually perched on bare shoulders, (ouch) — equally disquieting. (Are they the seers or maybe the orators of this conversation?)
  • The dreamy “la la land” girl (left), unfazable and most likely traumatized.
  • And the otherwise preoccupied and blinded girl (center) acting as the vertex of this female trinity.

. . . They all beg the question — “What the #@$% is going on here?”

And maybe, just maybe, that’s the point. It’s alright not to know what’s happening, or what it’s all about, or whether there’s a right or wrong interpretation.

Just go wherever it takes you.

This painting took me squarely into the middle of my own complicated feelings about living and coping in today’s not so “brave new world,” feelings of sensory overload and conflicting emotions of whether or not to look, to listen or to speak.

You, on the other hand, may find yourself veering into the interpretive realm of dalliances, secrets and lies, identity and power.

. . . Maybe the Ravens know and just aren’t telling.

Paul Mahder
Director

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