Silver Linings
Bearing The Weight by Paulette Colo, 2020 (oil on canas)
I think of this artwork as my “pandemic painting”. It is appropriate for today as after three years of folks getting Covid-19, I finally got the darn thing. Not a bad case by any means, and took me a bit to realize I should test, but I had oddly stayed uninfected while most everyone I knew got it, some multiple times. Thankfully being fully vaccinated means my case is mild and I can now stay home and write and sew without guilt. Which is certainly a silver lining…much like this painting is to me.
This is one of few artworks I have purchased directly from the artist. This piece was on display at an art show in Woodstock, IL in June, 2020. At that time, the complexity of Covid-19 was beginning to hit, and going to this show, masked, was likely the last time I ventured out with friends to attend something. Lock down hit soon thereafter.
I was immediately attracted to this painting, and analyzing why made me realize how much I gravitate to the color blue in my decorating. Blue is a “cold” color (as compared to a “warm” one such as yellow), and it creates a sense of calm. It also represents a state of melancholy. The dictionary speculates the term may be related to the skin being blue with cold, or lack of oxygen, as though being depressed depletes your body of needed air. Personally, my mother always had a blue and white kitchen, and I too have gravitated to blue and white kitchens. Somehow the god-awful blue paisley wallpaper in our kitchen and blue and white bicentennial pineapple wall paper adorning my room in the 1970s did not turn me off the color.
The composition of Bearing the Weight is timeless. Nothing really places it in a specific time, or location, and the model’s skin tone is ambiguous. The artist, Paulette, told me the woman was an art class model, and Paulette sketched her while she was taking a break from posing, not during the formal class session. The form is triangle in shape, and art history sees that blue draping as a classic “Madonna” color, often depicting the Virgin Mary wearing it, also frequently in a triangle form. The senses of sorrow and exhaustion the artist captures are striking, especially knowing we were all struggling through Covid-19 as well as Black Lives Matter concerns at that time. When my husband and I picked the painting up, there was a “Back the Blue” rally heading into the town to support police, in contrast to the Black Lives Matter events taking place. The model seems to carry the weight of those conflicts, and a sense of sorrow at the lack of civility in our society.
The treatment of the lower third of the painting is brilliant. The blue and red paint running down the white canvas hints at the Red, White and Blue of our country’s flag, with the paint seeming to bleed. It is up to the viewer to decide what the running paint means. I feel hopeful: while the paint is running, it has to go somewhere. It will end in a puddle off the canvas where it all runs together. Because, realistically, we are all in this together. Covid-19 is but one struggle. Depression, political anger, and social unrest also loom large. But as human beings we need to decide if we will side with anger and hostility or turn to our silver linings: hope, peace and kindness. I vote for silver linings.