Happiness is elusive, perhaps unattainable for the subjects of Grace Mikell Ramsey's exquisitely beautiful canvases.
The Arkansas resident oil painter's exhibition at Boswell Mourot Fine Art, "In Rose-Papered Rooms," melds fact and fantasy to reveal what lies behind enigmatic, unsettling or melancholy faces and scenes that reflect layers of truths, half-truths and delusions her subjects have woven into the fabric of life and living. If Tennessee Williams had focused his considerable gifts on painting instead of writing, his work -- spiritually at least -- could have resembled something like this.
So yes, there are secrets. Desire is friend and foe. Deep wounds and yearnings, hopes and fears, real life and fever dreams abound in her surreal, startling work that also has echoes of Carl Jung and magical realism. Ramsey presents stories to explore and expound upon, to reflect on choices made.
In A Time to Reap, a very pregnant woman sits outside, a man's left hand (wedding band gleaming) on her shoulder. Her expression is all dread and hopelessness; no joy about impending motherhood. The outdoors landscape is bleak, the sky wan. The bold and bright pattern of her dress is a stark contrast to the physical terrain and suggests psychological turmoil.
In Mother & Child, a girl with stigmata -- rainbows flow from her palms and feet -- faces her mother, who isn't surprised nor puzzled. Some works, such as The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing, could be regarded as a tad creepy. But don't turn away. Something is likely being stirred within. It's worth exploring what.
What Happens After Them finds three men in a forest of subdued colors, facing vividly colored crystals emerging from the ground. In the distance, the trees suggest prison bars or fencing. Are these crystals a gift, a way out, a punishment? Is it safer to let them be?
There is a tension in many of these pieces -- controlled emotions bottled up under a half-smile. As singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash once sang, "On the surface, everything's OK." In the surreality of Southern culture, Ramsey's subjects can project a similar emotional timbre. But it's not all doom and gloom; there is darkness, but glimmers of light too. What Is Lacking Cannot Be Counted finds a child looking up at a brightly colored bird nest in a tree, as adults converse, oblivious. A stunning self-portrait, For Which Fate Had Not Fitted Her, finds the artist waist-deep in water. Spiritual metaphor or the end?
Ramsey's exhibition presents a significant, singular vision that seems destined for great things. Ramsey, who grew up on a farm in Florida, has studied religion and art and was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA grant in painting. (Mitchell is a leading American abstract expressionist painter.)
Ramsey is an artist of refined skill and depth; as one is enveloped by her art, layers peel away. Truths are revealed in the story before us ... or serve as a metaphor for our secrets and seeing their truth and/or fantasy. We are all cats on a hot tin roof, it seems.
"In Rose-Papered Rooms," Grace Mikell Ramsey, through Saturday, Boswell Mourot Fine Art, 5815 Kavanaugh Ave., Little Rock, (501) 664-0030. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday.
Style on 05/19/2015