RICK MALLETTE: SOUTHGATE HOUSE

24 East 3rd Street
Newport, KY 41071

"HEADS"
October 6 - 28, 2006

ARTIST STATEMENT

After a decade of making monochromatic drawings, from sketches to murals, I have returned to painting. The process of reacquainting myself with paint and color has been tremendously fulfilling. Hopefully this energy is evident while viewing the work. These Acrylic on Wood paintings were all completed in 2006, except for #27 “Red Oval in Purple Space” finished in 2005.

I have used cartoon imagery consistently for many years in drawings. Cartoons are typically delineated, stylized and abstracted figures filled in with flat color. They are far enough removed that we feel nothing when they are subjected to pain and violence. In this new body of work I use paint to abstract the abstracted teasing the cartoon to that point that I begin to feel or empathize with it. Likewise, technically, I want to feel something for my medium, inert synthetic color that I am manipulating and moving over a stiff wooden surface. So, I scrape, smear, repaint, paint wet-on-wet, whatever is necessary, to pull emotion from the materials. In essence, my goal is to feel something real for my two unfeeling subjects, plastic paint and cartoon heads.

INVENTORY

1.        Green Face Yellow Spiral Neck (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
2.        Yellow Cheek with Red Hole (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 19 x 19 inches
3.        Blue Eyes and Smeared Lips (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
4.        Green Nose with Magenta Chin (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
5.        Green Eye. Yellow Tongue. Orange Cheek (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 36 x 36 inches
6.        Spiral Cheek and Blue Hair (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
7.        Peach Head. Orange Ears and Eyes (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 19 x 19 inches
8.        Spiral Mouth and Purple Vessels (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 36 x 36 inches
9.        Red Face and Red Eye (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 19 x 19 inches
10.      Blue Tongue on Orange Head (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
11.      Green Head with Blue Swirls (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
12.      Red Cheeks and Blue/Green Neck (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 36 x 36 inches
13.      Smeared Orange Head in Blue (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 19 x 19 inches
14.      Orange Head under Green Cloud (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
15.      Orange Face with Oval Pink Mouth (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 36 x 36 inches
16.      Head in Pale Yellow Space (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
17.      Pink Head with Two Closed Tubes (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
18.      Pink Head inside Yellow Head (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 36 x 36 inches
19.      Square Face with Rays (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
20.      Warm Scraped Head on Green (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 36 x 36 inches
21.      Rose Head with Yellow Holes (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
22.      Green Beard with Flat Top (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
23.      Cross-Eyed Green/Pink/Orange Head (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 36 x 36 inches
24.      Spiral Mouth with Orange Hair (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
25.      Green Mouth with Curly Yellow Cheek (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches
26.      Smeared Green Head with White Cloud (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 12 x 12 inches
27.      Red Oval in Purple Space (2006) Acrylic on Wood. 24 x 24 inches

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