Long term readers might recollect this perspective from a previous post about genre fluidity. Same artwork; different illumination. This evening I offer you a glimpse of Paul Rossi’s figure basking in early morning parlor light. No genre bending and blurring this time, and only the briefest mention of the peculiarity Susan finds with this arresting painting.
[This] painting by artist, Paul Rossi… hangs in our front parlor (aka the “green room”)… Susan fell for… [it] the moment she saw it in Paul’s Wadhams studio… Had to have it. And so home it came. But the next morning, while coffee-ing up… she suddenly remarked that the female figure was endowed with a phallus! Actually, that’s not exactly what she said, but that was the gist. She still loved the painting, but she’s never been able to “un-see” the appendage (the subject’s hand and wrist) as anything other than, well, let’s call it a gender blending silhouette. (Source: Genre Fluid)
Susan and I first began renovating properties together in 2003. First in Manhattan, and then an Essex. In those early days, Susan told me that she would never live in a renovation. Too disruptive. Too unsettled. Too dirty, dusty, etc. Too challenging. And I understood, even agreed. At the time. But, many years later, we both acknowledge that we’ve lived in renovations more often than not.
While there are many reasons for this, a rhizomic, interwoven web of reasons, one of my biggies is light. Natural light. Early in the morning. Late afternoon. Nightfall. The way sunlight awakens volumes, textures, and colors is profoundly important to me. It’s not discernible with AutoCAD or discussion. It’s not theoretical. It’s the sort of poetry that must be experienced firsthand. Empirically. Sensually. Repeatedly. And shaping a room, an environment, a home in symphony with natural light benefits from time together. Different times together. A relationship. And, in my case at least, this happens best while waking, dining, living, bathing, working, resting, entertaining, and sleeping in the place we’re reinventing.
The photograph of Paul Rossi’s silhouetted figure transcends pigment and brushstrokes, artist’s rendering and framer’s container . The parlor light at sunrise on October 5, 2012 — and a dozen years later, this morning — blurs boundaries. Artwork and sitting room, creative conjuring and cozy coffee-sipping home, illusion and bricks and mortar abode are braided into an intimate and familiar experience.
What do you think?