Gretchen's Juxtaposition

Gretchen self-curated only two pieces. The one on the right a Matisse Study in oil pastel. She did this first. The one on the left, a project I introduced where she drew her symbol system down the left-hand side, a classmate's symbol system down the right-hand side, and then original text down the center somehow linking the two. She hung them side by side on the wall, I photoshopped them like this. There is something about this juxtaposition that makes me extremely fulfilled, balanced, and happy. It includes a serious looking at a master artist, with new eyes and materials. It includes an original set of meaningful and personal symbols at a tender moment in a young artist's emergence. It includes careful observation and the rendering of a contemporary's work, and then the text...the beautiful writing in Gretchen's own hand, not a font. Like Chinese calligraphy. Linked by blues, greens, burnt siena, and graphic blacks. Together, old and new, ancient and contemporary, personal and communal.