Kim McCarty, Boys & Girls exhibition at Morgan Lehman Gallery:
McCarty uses a wet-on-wet technique, saturating the form with water before applying pigment with a loaded brush to the paper. When the pigment hits the water-laden paper, it creates soft ripples of color and gradations of value, expressing both flaws and perfection, and the dichotomy between uncertainty and focus. The process is extremely fleeting and an image is either created or lost within seconds. Working with watercolor, particularly a wet-on-wet technique is notoriously difficult to control, and it can take weeks to create a work that has the artist’s desired delicate balance of realism and abstraction.
McCarty’s imagery and compositions are derived from personal photographs. She uses these images as specific references to develop a particular pose or composition. The figures or “beings” all seem related, familial - perhaps a human subspecies. They are capable of communicating a feeling or a mood that is universal, yet deeply intimate and personal. Some figure’s express longing, others seem sexy and intriguing, some innocent and unaware of our voyeurism. In these boys and girls we see our emotional selves reflected, and catch a glimpse of the fragility and tenuousness of the human experience.
