These works and their truths do not exist in the neurotic dialectics of theory, but in that of the deeply contemplative and reflexive terms of the mystical. They must be viewed accordingly. 

Despite their decidedly organic nature, the forms they contain evade explicit definition. Constantly demuring in favor of suggestion, as opposed to outright statement. A celestial firmament appears, conjuring impressions of the sidereal. Visions verging on the sublime. Gestures intimating Romantic vistas and Marian agony and ecstasy. And beneath these cursive veils, the improbably minute presents itself, vestiges of marine mollusks become discernible. Precious and meek. The infinite and the infinitesimal within and without one another. The elemental expression of the artist’s existential reveries.

Their light, at times diaphanous, at others obscure, is invariably spectral. This ghostly quality pervades the whole of the artist’s work. The haunting air–a whispering draft in the mind and spirit that pulls us towards a lonesome yearning. Even in the most apparently exuberant paintings, this characteristic is omnipresent. It is the personification of the artist’s imminent grief. The looming shadow of the inexorable.

As much as these are paintings of vessels in the literal sense (almost all the images depict objects which hold or contain) the pictures themselves reflect a greater applicability for the term through the themes and sentiments they engender for our contemplation. 

These are paintings about death. Meditating on the body’s plight as an ephemeral vessel. Beauty in the natural cycles of vitality and decay. Presence and absence. 

Through these works, the artist struggles to make sense of these cycles and their implications within her own life. Mortality in crisis. But it is precisely this condition which is the genesis of any and all artistic acts, at their fundament. An existential yearning to persist through that impending absence. That one might leave some testament, scribe some mark, that might cry out beyond the fallen voice.

When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

Text by Timothy Hugh Schauer

Caro Deschênes - CV