 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
I love coaxing a composition from the banal chaos of urban detail – the more obscure and unpromising the corner of the city, the better. My vision is an invented perspective informed by cubism, pixilation, quilts, and Mondrian's grids, in which the city is seen as if from above and head on simultaneously. It's a construct that emphasizes the abstract and the play between foreground and background. The flattening effect of the verticals and horizontals also serves my interest in reality as illusion – an idea reinforced by years of painting scenery for theater and television. My most recent pictures are based on hand-painted paper collages made directly from my digital photographs. I enjoy the contrast between the clarity of collage and the rich detail possible in oils. While I paint I mentally and emotionally inhabit the place I am painting at the same time that I am focused on its formal possibilities. The resulting pictures, while deriving in this case from specific spots in the northwest, exist for me in an ultimately abstract, imaginary realm. I invite the viewer to freely interpret place and mood. Julia Hensley |