INSPIRATION JURIED EXHIBITION

CAROL MELL

CAROL MELL

(Rio Rancho, NM)

In the Widening Gyre

cold wax, oil, on luan panel, 20 x 20 inches, 21 x 21 inches framed

Price: $544.75

includes tax + shipping fee

ARTIST STATEMENT

Driven by the barrage of upsetting news each day, I found myself searching through poems of the past looking for words that would soothe. It was comforting to find that the troubles of other times prompted artists to respond verbally and visually.

I had already begun three cold wax and oil paintings in another season and was unsure how to resolve them. They seemed to be telling a story I couldn’t yet decipher. Then, I noticed a creaturely shape slinking out of one painting and the words “rough beast” came to mind. Those words, of course, are from “The Second Coming” by the Irish poet, W.B. Yeats. Suddenly, I could see connections to that poem in my paintings, which then evolved in that direction as I carved, incised, brayered and brushed over their surfaces.

Inspired by the poem and how it seemed to be describing the chaotic times we are experiencing, I did a little research into Yeats’ time. The poem was written in 1919 as a response to World War I, the movement to liberate Ireland from English rule and the Russian Revolution, events which threatened to upend the European order. The word “gyre” needed a bit more investigation. For Yeats, the word was a term for the cyclical patterns of history, change and human spiritual evolution. His understanding was that history proceeds in spirals and that at the millennial turning points all that has been built will begin to unravel. Are we not now in such a time?

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