Kimberly MacArthur Graham

These pieces are a tribute to a friend of mine, Vickie Baker, and to her zest for life. Incredibly fit, healthy, and optimistic, Vickie fought cancer during 2005-2006, and died in the spring. While I was not one of her closest friends, I admired her greatly and will always remember her knack for living to the fullest. These paintings embody my gratitude for knowing people, such as Vickie, with a fully developed spirit, and my eternal fascination with natural processes, even those which herald tragedy.

The OFFERING series explores how context alters perception and, sometimes, shapes reality. Growth is normally thought of as “good,” but, of course, it’s not that simple. Ditto for soft, warm, or glowing. A soft, furry kitten is charming; a soft, furry apple is revolting. I wanted to play with viewers, allowing their disquiet about familiar materials strangely mingled to reveal just how little is absolute.

The admittedly obsessive textural treatments of each piece – its skin – alludes to seeds and their pods, whose amazing and adaptive variety gives pause, as well as to cells, which dutifully go about their jobs – dividing, conquering, attacking, even mutating – in the quiet and hidden spaces of the body.