Debussy: Sunken Cathedral 1993

Maria Bozoky made this painting, Debussy: Sunken Cathedral, with watercolor and ink. It's really cool how she combines loose, watery washes with these super precise, scratchy lines. It’s like a conversation between letting go and holding on. The colors are moody, mostly grays and greens, except for this intense spot of red and the cosmic orb at the top. It feels like everything is dissolving, but those graphic marks keep pulling it back from total abstraction. Take a look at the way Bozoky renders that figure in the foreground. It’s almost like the person is melting into the stairs, that bright red is so intense. The whole piece has a dreamlike quality, it reminds me a little bit of Odilon Redon’s Symbolist works, but with a rawer, more direct kind of energy. It’s like she’s not trying to illustrate a story, but more to capture a feeling, a mood.