February is a quiet month in the art world, galleries and artists alike are kicked back, planning and waiting for a new season to begin. The lack of constraint afforded by not being concerned with whether a painting will appeal to a collector or find a space of a gallery wall, can produce new ideas and directions as well as techniques.
  This February I found myself willing to work on a large canvas, trying out new materials as well as what I would normally consider risky subject matter. It took me awhile to work up the nerve to begin even knowing that I need never make the work public.
  I have painted nudes throughout my career with a true reverence for the human form. I am aware however that not everyone has the same reaction to a naked body. My own epiphany on the subject came when I joined a gym in my early 20's. While I would scurry into a cubicle to change clothes, there were woman who were so confident in their own skins that they easily walked through the locker-room, carrying on conversations and generally behaving as though they were clothed. I was so impressed by this that it changed the way I saw nudity and the lesson has always stayed with me.
  My nudes are generally not sexual in nature. In my "Body Language" series for instance, I am exploring the body in motion, power and form together, but to date always a single figure. Now if you place a man and woman nude together in a painting, there is the possibility of crossing an artistic line. I wanted to explore the couple relationship at it's most basic, primal level.
  At the same time I wanted to work with a thick impasto to surround my figures, building up texture and contrast between the crafted figure painting and the abstract surrounding. I like the idea of a couple touching for the first time, trusting each other, yet slightly tentative. The primal swirl that they lie upon just beginning to bind them together.
  I ended up being so happy with the work that my former reticence seems silly, and artistic risks, all artistic risks invaluable. The girl in the cubicle is out and about.

Laura