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 the 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.
I’ve felt exasperation reading what writers or critics suggest about art or artists’ intentions and feel their assumptions can, at times, be full of empty rhetoric. I have aimed to paint images that are straightforward, honest and not likely to be misunderstood.
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 and making a painting of it.
I admire in others, but don’t make an effort in my own work, to address the challenging times we live in. Indirectly, however, these pieces are a response to the demands of a technocratic world; where painting something called a “still life” feels like a rebellion unto itself. It’s enough for me to propose that there is meaning in a vase half full of water filled with roses lit in the afternoon sun. That there is inherent significance in 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 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.