Thursday, August 15, 2013

Dina Brodsky

"Vacant"  oil on mylar on plexiglass  8x8 inches

"Living Room"  oil on mylar  6x11 inches
"Off Northern Boulevard"  oil on mylar  8x8 inches

"Golden" oil on mylar on plexiglass  8x8 inches

"Trading Post"  oil on mylar  8x8 inches
Dina Brodsky works small. I could easily imagine these paintings large, overwhelming the viewer with their brooding atmosphere of abandonment and decay. But no. They're small. Very small. Sometimes small works get short shrift in the gallery scene. Large crowds cannot gather before a tiny painting and collectively murmur their emotional responses. No. Each individual must wait his or her turn to approach the piece and experience it alone, often leaning forward slightly, perhaps squinting, as if peering into a tiny window on another world that, for a moment anyway, only they can see. How does this effect the kind of vision that Dina Brodsky presents? I can only guess having never seen the work in person. But I like small works. I like that intimacy, the personal connection small finely crafted work demands. These are worlds I want to peer into. They echo those intimate lonely parts within my own heart. Doesn't everyone have a bit of that inside them? That's what these paintings are for. To recognize that part within you that is not only lonely, but defiantly so; that part within us all that no one else can ever quite reach but helps define who we are. I look at these paintings and I can hear the crows cawing and feel the November chill. And to me they seem inviting.

Her website is alas no more. Her galleries have only older or very limited work to view:
Artana Gallery and  Mark Miller Gallery
The best way to see more right now appears to be on her Facebook page or you can see all her work from this year on a temporary(?) wordpress page dinabrodsky.wordpress.com

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