Michele Peabody Myers

The rusted metal of a neon sign, a rusted kitchen step stool, a child’s metal toys all have a shared rhetorical language and allude to the manufactured environment. Through my paintings, these objects become an iconic disquisition on our shared narratives. The emblematic neon signage that reflects the universal experience also reflects and elevates a socio-economic way of life. The psycho-socio connotation of a kitchen chair that is interesting and thoughtful in a way that is often overlooked and misread. The commonplace that is repurposed through oil paint and canvas, cease to be ordinary and take on a life of their own. They tell their story with their very banality, as only the closest look at these objects can. In this way, there is a discourse between these objects that transcend a specific time and space.

The manner of paint and color propose a surreptitious chronicle of modernity. The process of layering paint in the manner of the old masters which placed in the tenets of modernist art point to these stereotypical objects of diversity, which are hidden in plain sight and in hopes of making visible what is overlooked.

My purpose as an artist is not to inundate the viewer with preconceived themes, notions or concepts. To quote Dave Hickey, “I think art experience is grounded in our involuntary responses to objects in the world, simply because if our response is not involuntary, it is immediately construed as a cultural duty, then transformed into a moral obligation.” I paint what I discover in these objects. They reveal their true potential not because they are prosaic, but in spite of it.

Contact

michelepeabodymyers@msn.com