January 2

Pop quiz time! In class today we had half an hour to describe a drawing we had not previously seen by a local artist, Clare Coyle Taylor. We were given three works, little background on the artist and were told, "Write!". Taylor created abstract images as a sort of “emotional journal” following the death of her husband. Out of the three options, Taylor’s January 2 evoked the greatest connection and emotion as an observer. The image recalls the scribbled masterpieces of my kindergarten past, created by snatching all the colored pencils from a table, holding them together in the same hand, and pressing them furiously at the same time on the page. To many this process may seem childish. But shouldn't we recognize the direct expression of emotion on the page? The organic nature of it all? From far away the picture appears to converge into 2 black holes. A closer look confirms the tornado of colors, but the colors do not blend. In fact the medium itself (colored pencils) ensure that the colors do not fuse. Turquoise, olive green, and a Pepto-Bismol pink peek out from under a deep maroon layer and two black squares. An even closer look distinguishes a navy in the midst of the black squares, which lie vertically on top of one another in the center. The emotion that originally drew me to the painting (no pun intended) can be found in the chaotic turns of the seemingly unplanned lines, which refuse to recognize the border that attempts to enclose them. The boxes in the center repeat the scribble technique that surrounds them, but are more compact, forming distinct shapes. The boxes are Kandinsky-esque, in that they repeat a pattern of colors, navy and black. The bottom dark box encircles a sunset red square, which attracts the eye even at a distance. Clare Coyle Taylor colors a story. Although I would like to connect the dark emotion of the lines with her own struggles, her story is unclear. Off to Calculus!