Cinderella’s Slipper 2015

Rose Freymuth-Frazier painted 'Cinderella’s Slipper' using what looks like oil paint, which is a process of layering and blending. I love the way this painting explores the tension between representation and abstraction through the interplay of light and shadow on this stripper heel. The transparency of the plastic is so well rendered, it gives the form of the shoe an almost ghostly quality, like a trace. The thick impasto on the platform of the shoe is amazing, and the way the color is built up in layers gives it a real weight. But the surface is also buttery smooth, which is kind of intriguing and unexpected. The shadow cast by the shoe is particularly compelling. It's almost like a separate entity, a darker, more ambiguous version of the shoe itself. This painting reminds me a bit of some of Philip Guston’s later work, where everyday objects take on a strange, almost surreal quality through the artist’s unique vision. Like Guston, Freymuth-Frazier seems interested in exploring the hidden depths of seemingly ordinary things.