Welcome
Barbara Pence
Also, see Barbara's blog of her daily paintings at: http://barbarapence.blogspot.com/
Contemporary Realism
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates
In the spirit of Socrates’ dictum, my paintings deal with existential questions about love, justice, spiritual longing, and with finding beauty in the mundane. They may examine the questions but they don’t necessarily try to answer them.
My paintings are often narrative in the sense that the objects in them present some kind of story. Each object is carefully chosen for a variety of reasons. When juxtaposed with other carefully chosen objects in a particular setting, each can take on metaphorical meaning. Marbles, for instance, as the small grace notes of many of my paintings, may convey underlying mystery, portents, hope, or maybe just a giggle. A clock may refer to my anxiety at the passing of time. Jewels have to do with my concern about reconciling material abundance with the misery of others - that is, my personal responsibility. A simple flower in a simple vase may suggest that abundance has nothing to do with jewels! I am not always – or even often – clear on just what the meaning of each object might be, but each is evocative for me, and I hope for the viewer.
Regardless of their symbolism, I love the objects themselves. Our lives are filled with objects, and we value them for many things, mainly related to their utility in our lives. However, our everyday familiarity with them often causes them to lose power to draw our attention. When an object goes into a painting, it is restored to the spotlight and we regard it anew and re-appreciate its special qualities. For that reason I pay as much attention to an accurate rendering of the objects as I do to the symbolism of their presence.
Why do I use realism? On a practical level, it suits my temperament. On an aesthetic level, it narrows the distance between the viewer and my intent by not creating barriers to understanding. Viewers are not intellectually put off by being asked to “make sense” of an unrecognizable, abstract image. As the artist, my challenge is to structure the paintings so that the realism evokes more than a conventional emotion or reaction to the objects, thereby allowing deeper, more serious meanings to emerge.