Mid Summer 

Curator: I’m just basking in the warmth radiating from this painting. The rosy hues feel almost…audible, like a chorus of cicadas on a hot day. What’s your take on it? Editor: "Mid Summer," it seems, is an exercise in the cultural performance of leisure, but not one easily enjoyed by everyone. Its impressionistic style softens the potential critique inherent in depicting a bourgeois summer idyll. Curator: The artist, Jeff Jamison, definitely captures a specific slice of summer. I imagine painting this en plein air, squinting at the light, trying to catch the shimmer on the water with broad strokes of acrylic. Editor: The figures, while present, lack distinct features. They become types rather than individuals. How do these de-individualized forms affect our interpretation? Do they hint at the commodification of summer experiences? Curator: Possibly. Or maybe Jamison is inviting us to project ourselves into that scene, to recall our own hazy beach days. It's a visual poem more than a social commentary, for me anyway. There's something undeniably beautiful in how he simplifies and abstracts the scene. The colors are so uplifting! Editor: Color plays a crucial role, yes, but I can't help but see it as a calculated decision to avoid deeper social engagements. The choice of representing leisure – particularly a scene that evokes exclusivity – inevitably implicates the artist, intentionally or not, in systems of power and privilege. Does the sweetness lull us into complicity? Curator: I guess I see it differently. For me, the painting triggers a wave of nostalgia, a sensory recall of sun-baked skin and the rhythmic crash of the ocean. The artist has done a wonderful job in creating this world. Editor: It’s an important consideration in our present era, grappling with economic disparity and the accessibility to such forms of relaxation depicted in "Mid Summer". So many things seem simple on the surface, including painting and enjoyment. Curator: I still can't resist it, and maybe I am complicit as you say. It gives me joy, makes me smile. Perhaps art should offer something so beautiful when the world, is more often, not. Editor: And maybe art also exists to prompt those critical interrogations precisely because we deserve to smile and it is vital to ask who gets to and under what conditions.