Carol's House Painting

A close friend of mine grew up at her grandfather’s house along Boat Quay, Singapore. That is a very different place today. But the river is still there. At it’s back, the institutions of power and wealth loom large. The migration of people from their homes creates memories as intangible cultural wealth at a macro level. At the individual level, rememberance leads to longing and melancholy.Many cities are sites of creation of cultural value and melancholy at the same time. Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks shows people in the same place, isolated from one another and with no way out, creating a landscape of menace and tense suggestion. I decided to try a gentler approach. Like Hopper’s diner, there is no visible exit for Carol from the river bank. She is separated from a cluster of dwellings on the far side. I chose to keep her features diffused and soft. The tropical light and the languor of these parts do provide for that. The harsh clarity of Hoppers’ The Automat is a relentless study of a lonely woman. As a woman myself, I insist on a different emphasis. The outdoors dilute that hard edge and the darkness. The river is a barrier, boundary and the page within which her story is written. The buildings might be where her story played out-and is still playing out, at least in her mind. Unlike Hopper, I have hopes. Carol might be able to take a boat to the far bank. She may use her memory to construct a new world or pass it onto another generation. I am endlessly positive.

Painting:Watercolor on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:21.5 W x 15 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.