How can a Hallmark moment be found in the perfectly ordinary activity? The artist Alyssa Phoebus, quite unexpectedly, answers this loaded question and reveals the mysteries of romance in her art along the way.
Her graphite works are poignant and meticulous studies of lines, shapes and angles. Words and outlines, transcribed on hand-made paper, acquire meaning not in a quick glance of a passerby but in the eyes of an intrigued admirer. Luckily for Alyssa Phoebus, however, she has the ability to captivate the attention of even the most stubborn of skeptics. And that is the key to the true staying power of any artist.
Not only is there poetry in the lines of graphite running up and down, across, diagonally, and in zig-zag patterns in Alyssa’s pieces. Not only is there a connection between a simply placed word and a line running through it. There is much more to Alyssa’s every work - a level of depth where one can look at each of her graphite or printmaking studies not as individual entities but as compelling pieces of larger collections. Then, there is evidence of the artist’s tireless exploration, almost obsessive-compulsive-like strive to let the lines dictate their own paths, to meet and greet at the most unexpected intersections. Like strangers, meeting by chance in front of a mom-and-pop store in some remote corner of the world, and realizing, upon conversation, that they share some deep, completely unexpected connection, so do the lines interact with one another in a way that is haphazard but also almost predestined and harmonious.
Alyssa’s 2009 piece “Comber” continues, in line with the artist’s previous works, the defining power of a chance encounter to speak volumes on a canvas. A striking play on contracting colors, the strands of smudged, white lines generate vertically from the words. The simple action of brushing one’s hair has never been captured so eloquently in such an abstract form.
The cascade of strands is gentle and soothing. The Comber’s fingers never seem to splice or brutally damage her lover’s hair. The act of brushing is transformed from a mundane necessity into a sensual dance. Almost feeling the waves of shudder down the spine, we all want to put ourselves in the Comber’s lover’s shoes, just for a moment, to experience the energy and the affection sipping out from under her fingertips.
Sometimes even the most simple of actions carry the most weight in terms of raw emotion. When a card and a dozen of red roses can’t say enough, a mischievous curl of a lip in a smile, a lingering stare, or a light brush of a finger against a rebellious lock of hair can finish an incomplete sentence. Sure, we all may want our prince or princess to arrive on a white horse and whisk us away to a dream-like castle in the land far far away. But Ms. Phoebus shows an easily more convincing reality, where the Happily Ever After can come in a simple, unconditionally captivating brush of hair.
"Design Delirious"
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