Artwork – Paintings - Laurel Garcia Colvin

Enchanted Series

This series of small panel paintings continues my interest, first explored in The Enchantment series, in the fragmented memories of childhood. The images in these works refer to my childhood memories of the woods and gardens around my home and my grandmother’s home nearby, and the wallpaper patterns of flora and fauna found in these homes. The overlay of patterns and silhouettes found in the natural and the man-made world are reduced to their most basic shapes and forms in limited color palettes. These works continue my interest in symbiotic narratives and the interaction of the natural and human realms, the often hidden, and evocative forms and patterns found in flora and fauna. They evoke the enigmatic nature of a dream, implying emotional, psychological or spiritual states.

The Enchantment Series

This series of paintings alludes to a book by the child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim entitled The Uses of Enchantment that inspired Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical Into the Woods. In the book, Bettelheim suggests that by reading and interpreting traditional fairy tales in their own way, children are able to grapple with even their darkest fears in symbolic terms. The images in these paintings also refer to my childhood memories of the woods and gardens around my home and my grandmother’s home nearby, the wallpaper patterns of flora and fauna found in these homes, and the fairy tales that both delighted and frightened me as a child. The overlay of patterns and silhouettes found in the natural and the man-made world are reduced to their most basic shapes and forms in limited color/value palettes. These paintings continue my interest in symbiotic narratives and the interaction of the natural and human realms, and the often hidden, and evocative forms and patterns of flora and fauna.

The Enchantment series – A Curator’s Comments

Laurel Garcia Colvin delves into the complex world of childhood and fantasy with The Enchantment series and presents the viewer with a place for self-reflection.

Mined from the artist’s memories of childhood, these graphically strong paintings on wood panels comprise an all over wallpaper pattern, providing a monochromatic ground against which silhouetted figures of children explore flora and fauna under the moonlight, an environment both precarious and enchanting.

These allegorical narratives are robust with symbolic meaning associated with traditional fairy tales. The moon, the wolf, the frog, flora and fauna are scrupulously utilized to construct images that explore the formative emotional world of the child. This and an interest in transformation and the philosophic journey of human beings from birth to death are enduring subjects in Garcia Colvin’s oeuvre.

The innocent child, cloaked in a twilight landscape, is on the brink of awakening to something new. There is a sense of wonder and pleasure seeking in this private, moonlit world—a journey of insight and discovery that reflects the inner landscape of childhood.

Though we may respond to images of a child alone in a strange, dreamlike world with danger and anxiety, we adults have learned how things are; we are doubtful, fearful, and cautious. Garcia Colvin’s images captivate us. They generate the desire to be in/to return to a place of childlike wonder and discovery, to literally shed layers, to unlearn and be completely open to the world, to be freshly in the moment of creativity with an undaunted appetite for new experiences.

As with all good fairy tales, The Enchantment series portrays life issues in miniature. Garcia Colvin carefully drives her meaning, inviting us to embark on a journey into a shadowy world in which her characters signify facets of our own personalities and in so doing provides subconscious keys to help us navigate our adult lives. If we align ourselves to them—as a child does to the hero or heroine in a fairy tale—we emerge with insight and aroused energy through which to search for meaning in our lives.

Dede Young
Independent Curator
2009

The Conference of Birds

This series of six works allude to the Persian book of poems, The Conference of the Birds, by the Sufi mystic Farid un-Din Attar written in 1177. This book describes a journey of a group of birds, led by a hoopoe bird, seeking a leader for their kingdom. They must cross seven valleys – some birds give up, some die, some decide to turn back, and many make excuses. Finally, thirty birds complete the arduous journey, and when they reach the end, they realize that the king they came searching for is merely a reflection of each of them.

The birds described in this Sufi allegory possess human qualities and illustrate a master leading his pupils to enlightenment. The use of birds and human hands in this series also relates to a personal journey. In the fall of 2007, I helped move my elderly mother with early signs of dementia into an assisted living home. The home has an aviary in the middle of a large community room where many of the residents sit and visit. During my visits there, we would often sit in this sunny room.

While observing the birds, my mother and the other residents would talk about their lives - past, present, and future. These fragmentary conversations were some of the most enlightening and beautifully fragile discussions one could ever witness. Their journeys and memories, like the birds in the Sufi poems, reflect the various stages and the most profound truths of each human life. Each of these panels is a visual metaphor of those indelible moments.

This series is dedicated to my mother.

Untitled #1
The Conference of Birds series
acrylic paint, graphite powder, graphite pencil with acrylic matt varnish on Arches paper, mounted on silver painted wood framed panel
32” x 23” x 2”
2008

In Private Collection

Untitled #3
The Conference of Birds series
acrylic paint, graphite powder, graphite pencil with acrylic matt varnish on Arches paper, mounted on silver painted wood framed panel
32” x 23” x 2”
2008

In Private Collection

Untitled #5
The Conference of Birds series
acrylic paint, graphite powder, graphite pencil with acrylic matt varnish on Arches paper, mounted on silver painted wood framed panel
32” x 23” x 2”
2008

In Private Collection

Untitled #2
The Conference of Birds series
acrylic paint, graphite powder, graphite pencil with acrylic matt varnish on Arches paper, mounted on silver painted wood framed panel
32” x 23” x 2”
2008

In Private Collection

Untitled #4
The Conference of Birds series
acrylic paint, graphite powder, graphite pencil with acrylic matt varnish on Arches paper, mounted on silver painted wood framed panel
32” x 23” x 2”
2008

In Private Collection

Untitled #6
The Conference of Birds series
acrylic paint, graphite powder, graphite pencil with acrylic matt varnish on Arches paper, mounted on silver painted wood framed panel
32” x 23” x 2”
2008

In Private Collection

Paintings

Enchanted Series

The Enchantment Series

The Conference of Birds

HER Flag Project 2020

Bullseye Glass Residency

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