This Coming Season: SS20

The kernel of an idea for a collection can come from almost anywhere; from costumes from a movie, from the shape of a muddy puddle, from an emotional reaction to a political thought, to a piece of architecture, or to a mood that sings to me. I love portraits. I am first and foremost a filmmaker, a lover of narrative. So paintings often stir ideas that turn into a collection. This season it was an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of paintings by David Hockney. He reminds me so much of what my mother loved about the secret life of color;  it’s an emotional smacker. David Hockney wants us to feel in community with his subjects, persuading us to eavesdrop.

“ What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing. You wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.” David Hockney

Although I think the same can be said of a teacher, a mother, any sort of artist or writer, it struck me as so true and moved me  to construct form around this abstract idea and to build a collection around its edges. This spring/summer collection is my first plunge into color. And color begets a kind of freedom, a welcoming gesture to emotionally engage. I was drawn into the brazenness of  Hockney’s big blocks of color, to his almost gaudy pallet. Color is a dare. Hockney slaughtered my ideas about neutral quietness.