My Country 2010

Sally Gabori made this painting, *My Country*, with bold strokes of bright orange, set off by blocks of red and dark grey. I can imagine her wrestling with it, pushing the paint around, maybe starting with the orange, that all-over field, and then deciding it needed… something else. That red shape feels so decisive, like a sudden shift in mood. Then comes this dark, grounding mass. There’s a rawness here, a directness that reminds me of Joan Mitchell or maybe even some of the early Diebenkorns, though Gabori’s coming from a completely different place, a different history. It makes me think about how we all, as painters, are working with the same basic stuff – color, texture, surface – but how those elements can sing such different songs depending on who’s holding the brush. It's like we're all talking to each other across time and space, sharing this crazy language of marks and gestures.