Three Works

Art / Gail Buono

From the artist

:: Account ::

The three pieces of mine cho­sen for this issue rep­re­sent an intrigu­ing jux­ta­po­si­tion: each reveals a vary­ing stage of devel­op­ment, so to speak, from ethe­re­al (“Ora­cle I”) to dimen­sion­al (“The Ora­cle Observes”) to sym­bol­ic (“Por­tal to Steam Pool”). These works on paper are made by dif­fer­ent process­es, from mono­type with col­lage ele­ment, to col­lage ele­ments indi­vid­u­al­ly mono­print­ed and assem­bled, to a dig­i­tal over­lay of images.

I came upon the sphinx image dur­ing my wan­der­ings on the grounds of Ver­sailles. It was one of four sphinx sculp­tures (each with a unique face) adorn­ing a por­ti­co, sur­round­ing what I refer to as a “tryst” place (i.e. a hexag­o­nal, one room, enclosed struc­ture, entered through mul­ti­ple French doors). I was imme­di­ate­ly drawn to the sweet­ness of this sphinx’s face, and con­sid­ered her to be a per­fect rep­re­sen­ta­tion for my con­tem­pla­tive Ora­cle. I’ve placed her inside this archi­tec­tur­al struc­ture, as I have imag­ined a shrine at Del­phi would be.

In “Ora­cle I,” uti­liz­ing the mono­type process, the ele­ment of chance and mys­tery play a large role in the out­come, as it does in the Sphinx’s nature and inter­ac­tion. In “The Ora­cle Observes,” pho­to­graph­ic and abstract ele­ments encir­cle the Ora­cle in her deci­sion-mak­ing process. Final­ly, in “Por­tal to Steam Pool,” the Ora­cle is rep­re­sent­ed by the 12-point­ed star.

I have com­bined pho­tog­ra­phy and abstrac­tion in my print­mak­ing and col­lage work for many years. More recent­ly, the dig­i­tal prints weave an abstract rela­tion­ship between my land­scape pho­tographs and imagery from my paint­ings, depict­ing dual real­i­ties inhab­it­ing the same space/time con­tin­u­um. They cre­ate a sense of being por­tals that open to new meta­phys­i­cal worlds.

 

Gail Buono received a BFA in Paint­ing from The School of Visu­al Arts in New York City. She is the recip­i­ent of two paint­ing fel­low­ships from the NJ State Coun­cil on the Arts, as well as a “Dis­tin­guished Artist Award.” Her work has been exhibited/collected through­out the U.S. and in Europe. She has lived/worked in San­ta Fe, NM since mid-2006. To see more of her work, please vis­it her web­site: www.gailbuono.com.