Snowman 2008

Lisa Yuskavage made this compelling painting called Snowman with oil paint, though it could be any time really. The way she layers color here is so interesting. It's not just about matching reality, but about how colors feel next to each other. There's this dreamy, almost unsettling quality to the surface; that little yelling figure looks like a tiny god or something. The skin tones are built up with so many thin layers of color, and then the snow is all about a kind of chunky opacity. Look at how the greys in the stone wall almost become pinks and purples. The gesture of that twig right next to the figure’s head, it’s like she’s crowning him with a funny halo. It’s all so beautifully weird! Yuskavage reminds me a bit of Nicole Eisenman, who also bends representation in service of something deeply personal and strange. Both artists show us how painting can be a space for exploring the messiness of human experience.