Kelso No. 23, 6.27.89 1989

Curator: The tangled yet deliberate marks composing this work generate a captivating, unsettling mood. It reminds me of a dark dream, somehow both frightening and alluring. What’s your initial impression? Editor: This is Frank Lobdell's “Kelso No. 23, 6.27.89”, an etching dating from 1989. What strikes me immediately are the oppositions—of texture and form, order and chaos. Those geometric elements floating near amorphic forms—could be a reflection on the intersection of thought and matter. Curator: Oppositions—that's key. The way those dense, almost oppressive blacks are juxtaposed against delicate, spidery lines is striking. And it seems deeply personal—this kind of non-figuration often mirrors our interior landscape more accurately than realism ever could. Do you see any specific symbolic elements recurring here? Editor: Yes, especially in the circular forms. In many traditions, circles stand for wholeness, the cosmos, cycles of time. Their repeated use may signify life's cyclical and interconnected nature. Yet, there’s this harsh angularity too. Look at the sharp geometric structures and how those chaotic webs of lines break them up. To me, this represents our inner experience when faced with reality's rough edges and inherent imperfections. Curator: Exactly. Perhaps Lobdell wanted us to experience an emotional reaction through these basic formal and gestural configurations and abstract signs. The image, like all enduring icons, becomes an experience. I wonder what Lobdell was thinking about the relationship of order and chaos at that point in his life and whether that’s what informed it? It feels… vulnerable. Editor: Indeed. Perhaps Kelso reveals not a fixed belief but a kind of exploration of tensions and transformations through visual symbols that capture our very human struggle with flux and solidity. Curator: Looking at "Kelso," it almost feels like I'm overhearing a deeply personal conversation. These signs feel private and yet also universal to our experiences of fragmentation and a pursuit of some underlying formal totality. It certainly makes you ponder. Editor: Yes, there’s something raw about it, unfiltered. And as a consequence, deeply resonant. A really good thing to think about for our visitors, I think.