SIMPATICO

Fourth Wall Gallery

Oakland, California

Preparation for SIMPATICO; Carl Heyward and Jenny Hynes, a Two Person Show at the Fourth Wall Gallery; metamorphic.

Since we began preparations, the world has shifted, taking us with it like the inside of a washing machine spin cycle. It inevitably seeps into our work and our beings, both sensitive artists; feeling, reacting, retreating. The first collab day; driving to Carl’s studio listening to the news; a truck with a bomb in it explodes in Nice. It’s unbelievable, and too much to take in. As Carl and I begin to work, pulling out paper, paints, making marks, reacting to each other’s marks, a calmness fills the space. A burrow. Our work becomes meditative this day. A refuge. At home in my studio the residue of our collaboration days these past several months linger. Things I learned from Carl, working with him, seep into my work. Wrapping around my faces and figures, making them disappear into abstraction, then rear their ugly faces at me. Appearing, disappearing, and reappearing again. I react with figures; imbedded emotion and frustration. Expression. Communication. Carl and I meet in the middle, in an abstract, stream of consciousness place. Always asking myself the question: What’s too much? Where can I eliminate? Where can I add more clues? Clues into the feeling, the message I am trying to communicate. Through paint, line, form, colors, size, and materials I try to tell a story. A story of now, my own existence, my shared existence on this Earth. Using paint, color and texture to play peek a boo with an audience. An audience on Facebook, and now at The Fourth Wall Gallery. The story that is told in SIMPATICO is about people, being together, not only physically but in spirit. Reacting to each other through an artistic practice, in this case painting and drawing. It’s about sharing ideas, creation. It’s an excuse for people to get together and visit the Fourth Wall Gallery; Come together. Making marks and creativity, it comes natural to young children. It must be important. It is a way we can communicate things that could never be explained in words.