Gerald
Hopkins: Paintings
The Woodstock Connection
by Susan Hoover
Interesting to note that just as there is a teasing peeling
back of meaning’s layers, from the initial abstract
to an actual concrete connotation, the same kind of multi-dimensionality
also exists in the act of observing, as affected by how the
painter is painting and manipulating color, line, light, form,
and technique. First, and in a very different way than how
Seurat handled ‘pointilism’, Hopkins utilizes
a very controlled, selective method of ‘dotting’.
This, combined with an equally directed choice of colors,
which often allows the background color to come through, often
reveal the hint of a shape or a form. And it is because of
this seductive suggesting, this controlled guidance—that
each painting involves an actual journey for the viewer—provided
you meet each canvas with a willingness to be led into your
own seeing. Secondly, as an added ingredient, which magnifies
the 3-D impression that many of them seem to have, some of
the paintings wander off into the frame itself, creating an
illusion of movement rather than encasement.
This is a show not to be missed.
Susan Hoover is a performing and published poet. She recently
moved to Woodstock from the West Village in NYC.
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