GraceANN Cummings:
Another Selfie?

Another Selfie?

Artist’s Statement:

In today’s world the plethora of “selfies” is a social media norm, and a dynamic exchange of interaction between people. All around the world we share “those special moments” captured by the cellphone in our hand to memorialize fleeting moments. So, what if the “selfie” became a “youie?” What if you became someone else’s “selfie” simply by looking at their image? Artist, GraceANN Cummings, playfully suggests this with her paintings in this exhibition. When you look at her work, you physically become part of the paintings by reflection; and the paintings become part of you by entering your mind. There is no escape while you look at the paintings. Cummings does this with the obvious medium of mirrors and also wordplay that prompts “selfie conversations” for the viewer. She also uses the less obvious medium of knives to symbolize our common vulnerability of being mortal. Our shared mortality is like a quotient of being a “self” fractured from “other which is not me.” This is a frequent focus in Cummings’ work. She sees it as a rhythm rather than alienation which she depicts as moving time seen in her brushstrokes that carve out energy patterns of abstraction or brushstrokes that leave abstracted figures on the canvas. She reinforces the presence of time in her art with her rotational style(s) that intentionally lack visual cohesion, yet consistently rotate into groups where the presence of friction is consistent as a signature; like looking at her art and being part of it or refusing to look at her art and cherish being yourself.