Community 2013

Sharon Louden made this painting, Community, with strokes of bright colors forming blocky shapes that sit playfully on the white surface. It's all about the doing, you know? There's something so immediate about the application of paint here. The colors are laid down with confidence, and the way they intersect creates unexpected tensions. Take that green rectangle at the bottom. It sits there, solid and unapologetic, grounding the more ethereal shapes above. The paint is creamy, with a tactile quality that makes you want to reach out and touch it. It reminds me a bit of a deconstructed Mondrian, but with a looser, more improvisational feel. Like maybe the artist began by drawing shapes then allowed the painting to develop organically, embracing the unexpected. Ultimately, it is a great example of how painting embraces ambiguity.