Sunlit 2015

Soey Milk made "Sunlit" with graphite to create a highly rendered black and white artwork. What a beautiful, strange work! I wonder what it was like for Milk to make this. Did she start with the face or the hand? Was the rope the last thing she added? Or was that what the whole thing hinged on? The image has a lot of light and shadow to give it depth, but it is not just photorealist. It’s more like a memory; how the light lands on skin; the way the rope loops across the arm and shoulders. The soft skin is juxtaposed with the harsher dark shadow underneath. It is as if the image is rising out of the depths. That arm across the chest is a great touch. I love the ambiguity of not quite knowing what it means or why it is there. And that’s the thing about painting, isn’t it? We are all in this ongoing conversation, generation to generation, each of us riffing off each other, adding something new to the mix.