TAMIE BELDUE
Tamie Beldue, Sleep Series 1, 2008 graphite & watercolor 6 ¼” x 9 ¼”
- Tamie Beldue
Beldue’s figurative works often depict subjects who are in repose, and at the time her son was born she was “searching for a more candid, everyday subject that isn’t staged, arranged or preconceived.” Body language has been a continuing source of exploration for the artist and the unposed aspect of the model in Enfold, which was exhibited in GreenHill’s Winter Show, was the result of Beldue drawing the model in the familiar space of a favorite couch in her own home.
In Sleep Series 2 the infant, with his face masked by a limp arm, is utterly still when compared to the soft cocoon surrounding him. In this and other works the baby’s light-colored clothing blends with the bedding, integrating the figure into a larger spatial context. Spatial markers such as the bars of the crib suggest the parental perspective of looking down on the child, yet the movement of light and shadow falling on the bed creates an ambiguous space that is otherworldly.
As photographer Sally Mann stated, “part of the artist’s job is to make the commonplace singular, to project a different interpretation onto the conventional.” The dog design on the bodice of the child’s pajama that gradually becomes apparent or an overturned stuffed toy that appears to dive off the picture plane become actors in a wonderland that we are invited to enter. The appeal of Beldue’s drawing series is how naturally she handles the conversation between the presence of this new unique being and the absence sleep creates, through infinitely subtle shifts in luminosity that like the relinquishment of consciousness transport us.
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