-Artist Statement, works on paper 2016- Present
Colleen Kelsey Friday Girl, 2016
This watercolor series began in the summer of 2015. It is made up of small works in ink and watercolor on paper, all sized under 9 inches. The scale is purposeful. As a mother of three children working small allows the necessary attention required for each piece. This allows me to carve out time between my classes as an adjunct, while my kids are occupied at school, watching tv and/or asleep at night. It's interesting that historically women artists worked on hand held pieces contained in their laps and easily moved around. They worked in mediums of stitching, drawing and cut paper. I also enjoy that this size lends a viewing intimacy, inviting the audience to come closer to properly examine the work.
Narratives are built with archetypal characters of female, male and family. Within the paintings characters occupy an invented landscape. The work also speaks to gender power structures in the grand history of painting. Often I reference paintings from the western art canon such as Watteau or Boucher. In the Artist and Her Husband series I look at male artists’ self-portrait domestic paintings. I too am married to a painter, Jeremy Long, and find it very humorous to subvert these roles in paint. I paint myself as the strong matriarchal artist and my husband as the supportive spouse. This to me also speaks to the current under representation of women artists in our major museums and galleries. Other paintings find content in current political and social issues that we experience as a society. Throughout all these works the main objective is to actively create a pictorial balance within the composition with attention to mark making and the study of color.
Narratives are built with archetypal characters of female, male and family. Within the paintings characters occupy an invented landscape. The work also speaks to gender power structures in the grand history of painting. Often I reference paintings from the western art canon such as Watteau or Boucher. In the Artist and Her Husband series I look at male artists’ self-portrait domestic paintings. I too am married to a painter, Jeremy Long, and find it very humorous to subvert these roles in paint. I paint myself as the strong matriarchal artist and my husband as the supportive spouse. This to me also speaks to the current under representation of women artists in our major museums and galleries. Other paintings find content in current political and social issues that we experience as a society. Throughout all these works the main objective is to actively create a pictorial balance within the composition with attention to mark making and the study of color.