At a recent visit to the Two Rivers Art Gallery here in Prince George, I was introduced to the artwork of Maureen Faulkner. The exhibit on display was titled "Cake: A Travelers Journey". When you first looked at the images, they did not do much to inspire me. Of course they were very skilled paintings, but I thought 'Well, its just cake. Now all I want it some cake". However once reading the excerpt beside each of her pieces, you realize how much of her life story and the pain she has experienced in her life resides within those images, images of Cake.
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Her images of cake describes her struggles with weight throughout her life, and how the cakes she paints all have a piece missing, representing a friend that has passed away. A series that was also in the exhibit was titled 'Rehab Cake Series 7: A week with friends'. The series chronicles her experiences with 7 different friends going through serious health crises.
This exhibit opened my eyes to how we can not always see what the artist is trying to portray through their artwork. We often have to look beyond into the fine print.
I enjoyed this exhibit because it depicted how someone dealt with serious situations in their life through a very unique artistic way.
So, for the first time ever I watched Go PG on tv the other day and there was a profile on this same artist and her cake paintings! I felt the same way you did at first Emma.. mmm cake, but the paintings really didn't inspire much in me. I left this show on in the background for a while and the same story came on about the cake paintings again (like, literally the exact same story). The second time I watched it I realized I kinda liked what she was painting (cake) as she was speaking. She was using a lot of white and shades of grey, but nothing really exciting or eye catching.. but I was beginning to look past what I thought was blandness and notice the different textures and emotion that she was putting into her art. I still, however, really want a piece of cake after watching that... subliminal paint messages maybe..??
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I was disappointed when I heard that Maureen was having a show that was all about cake - it seemed a trivial topic to me. And I did know about her struggles with weight - she told me over coffee, looking nice and sliim, that she hadn't even had a piece of birthday cake for 5 years or so after losing weight with Weight Watchers! But I didn't put the two together. What is neat about this exhibit, as I learned from a pamphlet at the Gallery, is the way that the artist expressed herself in a unique way. But...hmmm....I still love her amazing pencil and water colour pieces that she painted on her trip to Florence, Italy! (I think Maureen Faulkner is retired now but I visited her class when she taught secondary art.)
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