ARCHITECTURE HAS NO MEMORY
by
Brian Truesdale
April 30 - May 27, 2023
The works on canvas in this exhibit were inspired by the recurring visual references of my daily life. I’m haunted by the image of a large tree standing in a vacant field near where I live. You can view the tree through an exposed billboard, and I'm constantly looking at this solitary tree through the wooden framing device as the weather changes throughout the year. There’s a sense of strength but also fragility, as if this tree could outlast any man-made structure while also being vulnerable to the encroachment of commercialism. I’ve also explored this contradiction of strength and vulnerability with the incorporation of poses from figure drawing sessions I’ve attended. The pieces in this exhibit were influenced by the meditative geometry of my abstract drawing, transforming the soft curves of a particular standing pose into a totemic force as strong as any building.
I emphasize these contradictions with strong lines and bold neon colors countered by delicate brushwork and skeletal fragments of graphite and charcoal. I’ve found that mixing charcoal and graphite into the textures of the acrylic paint have merged my drawing and painting practices and have allowed for a greater immediacy of expression.
