Laurie Alpert said that her current body of work, “SNAP!” was, in part, shaped and steered by a sine qua non of emotional continuum. It is an effusive artistic pendulum swung to the far end, away from the gravitas that addressed violence in biblical and cultural themes — artworks that engulfed her for the last four years.
A few years ago when Alpert saw the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, she was instantly and fervidly moved by the religious icon: the torn edges, the decaying leather fragments, the ancient text all spoke of a mysterious beauty dating back to the beginning of mankind. While visiting the Golan Heights, she came upon a life-sized sculpture of a kneeling soldier aiming a rifle toward Syria; this image was also indelibly etched in her mind.
These images would rise along with the music her mother, a professional violinist, loved and performed, all coalescing into a restless mosaic imbued with tension between harmony and violence. Alpert said rendering this difficult, didactic personal theme consumed her.
Alpert’s current impetus is to find a counterbalance, a deliverance from her total immersion in a wrenching dialogue on conflict. Now, as though Alpert was somehow prophetic, we witness numerous nations in the Middle East region explode into violent, bloody governmental suppression of citizen protests seeking democracy and individual civil liberty rights.
Alpert divulged, with some relief, that a recently completed group portfolio project with fellow member-artists from EES Arts, a printmaker cooperative, entitled “Lighten Up,” gave her much needed fresh air and introspection.
This momentary pause is, in fact, a critical refueling moment that every serious artist should take in order to recalibrate the sights and sounds of the world, a necessary momentary pause to reinvigorate their artwork with renewed meaning.
In May, Albert’s show “SNAP!” will be presented at Boston’s Bromfield Gallery. It is a series of engaging mixed-media prints, lithography and monotype, that draw the viewers in to ponder the basics. These are forthright, lambent examinations of complex images; pure in form, articulating color, scale, depth and movement — all gleefully unhampered by any hint of political and social messages.
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