BETH SKILLICORN OUT LOUD TO MYSELF

Identifying with Frenhofer, Balzac's seemingly mad obsessive painter, the allegorical book I'm presenting for your consideration is a creative project that is my own compulsion; it is expressionistically unique from inception to completion. To my knowledge, nothing in the market compares to this kind of visual expression, and I believe it of value for those seeking to explore a fresh form of modernist avant-garde, or, like Frenhofer, I'm seemingly mad.

 

Out Loud To Myself aggregates my oeurvre of conceptual art into a more storied expression. The glyphic language I've created over many years, and have used comprehensively within the scope and sequence of my conceptual projects, is now presented within an introspective and explorative visual narrative. The book consists of thirty-nine tableaus, each panel titled and sequentially numbered, "Tableau.Setting"; each panel being an integral component, advancing an evolution of thought and inquiry.

 

A red checked tablecloth, an altar cloth, a metaphysical grid, is the platform for each tableau setting. This checkered grid, an imagined stylization of an ocean's undulating surface, a divisional caul between two worlds, the physical and the metaphysical, is fancied with suggestive dinnerware and fare, theatrical stage props, all serving symbolic purpose. Characters are purposely added and removed from scenes, to help abstractions play out their compounding dramas in elaborate detail and context on this grid. The grid itself transmutes into the skin, the divisional barrier between two worlds, of a significant character, Sockpuppethead, in Tableau.Setting XXXIV. This context, on the surface, being a formal dining event, my imagination is served with every course. Premises and postulates are served that demand elbows on the table, fork in fist, inviting reasoned discourse.