excuses, excuses Painting

Tracy Girdler has been painting for as long as she can remember. Art is in her bloodline. Her great-great grandfather actually started Crayola as a way to help kids draw in color! Lucky to have both of her grandmother's in her life, and lucky that they were both accomplished artists, she grew up thinking of painting as just another normal activity. Due to the fact that her father was a diplomat, she also got to experience living in different parts of the world. Her suitcase full of rich memories, which she could emotionally pull from in her art, grew fatter by the year. She'd like her paintings to speak for themselves, but understands, like all us artists do; that what's in our brain doesn't always translate perfectly onto canvas. Her paintings are the result of what she sees and feels. They aren't "pretty pictures." With each drop of paint that touches a canvas a drop of hope, of love, of life, extends from her brain to her hand. This of course means that paintings don't always turn out the way she originally envisioned. We've all been there as artists. The canvas layers grow thick; you begin to wonder if you're trying to be Jackson Pollock; trying to be a hack; thinking that Jackson Pollock himself was a hack. Then, all of a sudden, the painting feels complete and your heart can beat again. That's how Tracy feels when she's creating art. What she pours onto a canvas isn't just paint. It's a collection of everything she's ever experienced emotionally. It's her lifeblood. She knows though, that you the viewer are the final judge. Take a look at her work! Try to find your own meaning within them. If you succeed at that, then she's succeeded as an artist. By James Scully, The Wall Breakers The work of Tracy Girdler depends on the skill and art of good observers. "The eye," wrote Brian O'Doherty, "is a very sensitive organ, even a noble one... The eye is a touchy acquaintance with which it is necessary to maintain good relations. It is often questioned with some nervousness, and its reactions are accepted respectfully. It must be waited on while it observes, observation being its perfectly specialized function". To understand Tracy's paintings it is necessary that the Eye (a connoisseur par excellence) and the Spectator (a conceptually active subject) work together dynamically - a high-speed game of information exchange, guided by the artist's hand.