Nancy T. Baker: Nothing More, Nothing Less
Granite Gallery, Tenants Harbor, ME
July 31–August 5, 2024
Opening Reception:
Friday, July 31, 5–7 PM
In this world where our attention is being pulled in a million different directions, where same set of facts seem to elicit a myriad of often confusing conclusions, I committed myself to create a series of paintings that are direct and reflect what I see and how I see it. There are instances when I question whether the assumptions and inferences made about artists and their work truly align with the artists’ intentions. I have aimed to paint images that are straight-forward, honest and not likely to be misconstrued.
Say what you will, give them whatever meaning or significance you want, they are the result of the hard work of studying an object or place that I love and making a painting of it.
I don’t make an effort in my own work to address the challenging times we live in, though I admire that impulse in others. Indirectly, however, these pieces are an engaged response to the demands of a technocratic world, where painting something called a “still life” feels like an act of defiance. My own quiet rebellion. It’s enough, for me, to propose that there is transcendence in a vase half full of water, filled with roses, lit in the afternoon sun. That there is inherent significance in capturing the pleasing shape of a building settled in the landscape.
If there is any symbolic or metaphorical meaning attached to the work at all — it’s that there are quiet moments and objects of exquisite beauty waiting patiently for our attention, if we cut out the noise and put our focus on them. I hunger for that.
Nothing more, nothing less.