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Paint/Agora Gallery/11/28/09

I walked around Chelsea for a bit until I stumbled upon Ruth Gilmore Lang's series entitled, "Paint." I am not sure if it was the vibrant colors that first drew me to her work or her use of composition over all, but I found it hard not to want to write about her works.I found it hard not to want to write about her works. Being that I had never heard of this artist, I was excited to look up more about her, her past work, and what she is trying to accomplish as an artist. From first glance, it appeared as though she enjoys a certain organic and natural quality in these paintings. They spoke to me as being very free and also, very fun. I had come across her artist statement from another series of work she presented in a gallery in Michigan and as I read over it, I immediately saw the connection between the artist as a person and professional and her work. I was also extremely interested in what she had to say because I enjoy her involvement with nature, the human soul, and overall depth of involvement in her pieces. “Art is the language of the human spirit, the rhythm, beat, and song of the self. Sometimes difficult to decipher but, with surrender, one may travel into the heart of the painting.” She goes on to later also state, “Why else are we here, but to experience and to express the movements of passion and the fire in our spirits." She has made a clear connection through her artist statement and her paintings through her use of color, composition, and tone of her work. The vibrant and playful colors, shapes, and use of line create this world of excitement within the limits of the canvas itself. The sometimes-bold use of line creates more organic shapes that help to further push the idea of the naturalistic quality the artist embraces throughout her pieces. As Langs states in her artist statement, “with surrender, one may travel into the heart of the painting,” I feel as though looking at her paintings, one can easily get a sense of this. It feels as though she is easily lost in the process of making these paintings, like she has completely surrendered herself to the actual idea and action of creating these paintings. The paintings carry a very free flowing vibe, which as an artist, I find to be very attractive in not only my work, but when looking at other artists creations. With painting, it is an ever-changing process, layering, changing, experimenting, and with the idea Langs is working with, she is able to do so with this medium. The actual medium itself is, in my opinion, very whole and organic. Paint can be transformed into whatever the artist to desires, and in Langs case, the paint takes on a life and rhythm of itself, that reflects her taste and style, but is left open for the audience to dive in and take what they may.One of the clearest reads throughout Langs paintings, especially seen in “Release,” is the emotional quality behind the painting. For starters, as a whole, I feel as though she completely submerses herself in her work, and it is evident in the colors and pulse her paintings create. Along with these two elements, the line work, brush strokes, and overall tone clearly expect a vibrancy and passion from not only the artist herself, but from her audience. The painting itself speaks on its own about the emotional quality in terms of passion for life, passion for art, passion to create, without the need to read into this specific painting or any other her other works for that matter. Langs work simply requires of the viewer to be open. To be open to the pure emotion that these works speak in. The artists sense of how to convey her sense of passion and pure enjoyment in the process of creating art and also life through these paintings is something that is admirable.One of the reasons I was so captivated by these paintings by Langs began with the interest in her use of color and texture, the pulse and vitality it created, but it ended with the impulse that occurred within me, as an artist to go and produce something, anything that I could yield myself to.