Because time is a way of keeping events from happening all at once, it tends to bury the past. Anyone who wants to see it again has to dig. In Seattle, artREsource offers that opportunity. It’s a regional resale gallery, providing a secondary market for collectors and a chance for the larger audience to see what is no longer current, such as Gene Gentry McMahon’s untitled mural from
1983-84, oil on canvas
24 x 168.75 inches, via
Detail:
McMahon paints in a comedy-of-manners vein. Back before anyone thought William Hogarth had anywhere to go other than the slag heap of history, she was Hogarth in stilettos, painting
women on the make flirting with underworld thugs.
After that, she developed the most famous case of artist block in the region, down but not out, fighting through two bouts of breast cancer (hers and her daughter’s), holding down a day job as party props creator and struggling to keep her studio practice alive.
Last year, she bounced back with a terrific show at the Grover/Thurston Gallery.
Her self-portrait in that exhibit, Pinkie, 20 x 22 inches, 2008, suggests a new level of self-sufficiency. This figure needs a man like fish needs a bicycle.
Really nice artwork I love the stylish people with their different personalities – Great!