Paintings within paintings
After four full months of going full speed, Subjective is taking a bit of a rest.
Becca and I drove to Bend to pick up the show last weekend.
I was happy to see Cheri Lee, the director of the Pence Gallery.
I was also glad to get a chance to enjoy the show all together one last time for a few months…
...and especially to see how it looked in the space at Central Oregon Community College.
Becca Bernstein’s Artist 2010
(full diptych)
But what made me happiest about the strike of Subjective in Bend was Becca’s brilliant idea to trade paintings for a while. From the moment she suggested it, I knew I wanted to bring home her portrait of me. I have a special affection for the painting anyway, but I also happen to love one of the background details that Becca included. I love the painting within the painting.
Gwenn Seemel
Lily
2008
acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches
When Becca came to my studio to photograph me for her painting of me, Lily’s was one of the portraits I was working on. I like seeing how Becca represents my work in hers. It’s a game of telephone—a visual version of the game—and Becca managed to convey something of Lily without ever meeting her or even seeing anything but a half-finished portrait of her.
Gwenn Seemel
Father
2009
acrylic on canvas
36 x 36 inches
(full diptych)
Subjective is full of mirrors, doublings, and delightful instances of harmony which are all the more marvelous because they were created blindly, and Becca’s portrait of me is an excellent example of that. The only other work in the series with a painting in it is my portrait of my father, and that makes perfect sense to me. I painted my father beating me at chess, and chess is one of the ways that my father enjoys connecting with people. If I included paintings in the background of his painting, it was because portraits are my preferred way of connecting with people. Whether Becca knew it or not when she created her work, her painting within a painting echoes this.
Gwenn Seemel
Papa and Maman
2006
acrylic on canvas patchwork and canvas
20 x 40 inches (combined dimensions)
The paintings in the background of my father’s portrait are references to real paintings that actually hang in my parents’ dining room, but they are reworked versions of the paintings. This is the diptych which is partially obscured by my father’s head in my portrait of him for Subjective. I love this painting of my father, but it was important to me to cover it up in the chess-playing portrait. My father can come across as gruff and a bit intimidating, but that’s not all there is to him.
detail image of Father
Similarly, I changed my mother’s half of the diptych to this, an image which reflects her role as the sometime interpreter between father and son.
Gwenn Seemel
Kristan
2004
acrylic on canvas
20 x 16 inches
I substituted this portrait of my brother…
detail image of Father
...with this one, which depicts a face that he and I make more often than I’d like to admit.
Gwenn Seemel
The Bug
2004
acrylic on canvas
13 x 11 inches
And this attentive version of my parents’ dog Rouzic…
detail image of Father
...became a growling-barking dog in my Papa’s portrait because, once Roo gets started, my father loves to encourage his pup to bark. Don’t ask me why he does it, but I happen to think it’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
I’ve always loved living with paintings. Work takes on a life of its own when I see it every day without actually looking at it. And, until now, I’ve only ever had this relationship with my own paintings. It’s been fascinating in the past few days to converse in this same casual way with Becca’s work.
RELATED ARTICLES:
- Subjectively Bend
- Post-show depression and touring
- Portrait of the artist’s father
CATEGORIES: - Practice - Featuring artists - Subjective -
