Paige Thrasher is the featured visual artist for the “Chickweed — Celebrating Indestructible Women” benefit for the Family Crisis Council of Rowan County on July 19.
The Spoken Space Theatre and Chickweed will host a reception for Thrasher’s “Vernissage ŕ la Paige” show 6-8 p.m. Thursday.
“Paige speaks with the voice of a colorist concentrating not on painting pretty pictures but on painting images that relate to her past in a manner that creates mystery and intrigue,” a news release said. “She applies layer upon layer, reductive in imagery, yet expansive and dynamic in its depth of color. A whole dreamlike world resonates with inner life and inner light, drawing the viewer through the plane into this deep, mysterious essence.”
Over time, Thrasher’s work “pulses from figurative to imagery, each an expression of color and light. Her shapes and fields of color, or mists of blacks and greys, reach for the ultimate mystery, creating landscape, a still life, or an archetypal animal beckoning to the viewer’s spirit,” the news release said.
“Painting is a process that begins with no preconceived notions of what I will paint. I let my subconscious take over and begin working on my compositions as ideas begin to flow,” Thrasher said in the news release. “I do not rely on technique but rather on my ideas and sense of composition. I build up colors so that in the process, the image emerges, unique to each painting, imagery that resonates with warmth, sensitivity, peacefulness and tranquility. For me, my palette is merely for experimentation. I would never be able to mix the same color twice. Each new day, I am challenged to mix new colors.”
The news release continued: “These paintings originate at the intersection of the psychological and the literal. Through Thrasher’s unique vocabulary, she creates work that is a compelling union of luminous color and profound affect, drawing on inspiration from her experience of nature and place, from her youth in North Carolina. The separation of nature and spirit is not a reality for Thrasher. For her, it cannot be discussed — it must be painted.”
Vernissage a la Paige” will be on display from July 17 through August at the Spoken Space Theatre at 405 N. Lee St.