Unstill Lifes
The painting of “Still Lifes" has been a career conversation. They began as a means to employ the physical properties of the painter’s medium, with texture and color. It gave me a certain freedom to explore perspective and space within the canvas. At one point I decided to tilt the objects for the still life setup and that launched a challenging painting perspective. I glued the objects with threads on an elaborate vertical arrangement that could remain in place for weeks.There was also a randomness to finding fabric and flea market objects. Painting them in a large scale format and encroaching upon the viewer’s space with a tilted perspective created unsettling reactions.

Recently I have returned to still life painting following a trip to South Africa. At a fair trade market, I found myself completely surrounded by
exquisitely handmade containers scattered on the ground. They were made by women, from telephone wire, in crazy patterned designs. I was immediately intrigued. South Africa has the worst reputation for domestic violence and it struck me that these women could articulate such beauty under tough conditions. Their love for artistic expression was powerful. Since I didn’t have the physical objects to paint in front of me I made photographic collages as a working format.

I see the still life as a means to create an interesting composition that reflects my experiences of the transitoriness and beauty of life .
Carolyn Shattuck

These images as viewed on your monitor may not match colors in actual art.