Wass good dummy 2018

Monica Ikegwu’s “Wass good dummy” is a painting that's all about cool blues and smooth surfaces. I can just imagine Monica starting with that electric blue background, layering it with those wiggly shapes, almost like a visual echo. Then comes the figure, smack dab in the middle, look at that jacket! It's so glossy, it almost feels like you could reach out and touch it. I wonder if Monica was thinking about the push and pull between foreground and background, flatness and depth? I am thinking about all that blue, and I feel like she wanted to envelope the figure, and hold it there—suspended in time, so to speak. Painting is all about conversations, and how the next painter, me or you, can pick up the thread and do something entirely new. It’s always about the push and pull of ideas, never about arriving at a fixed point.