The Flamenco dance is powerful, commanding dance in which the hands are used to create motion. Focusing on the hands helps distort the figurative forms and creates an emotional expression that only hands can convey. Arms and hands are placed above the head and then on the waist all in the same painting on the same figure. The suggestion of arms and hands flying around the figures creates an odd broken impression of movement. These impression of moments of movement are capture in a long running dialog between space, time and reality. Space and time can truly distort reality if it is smashed together into one frame. The portrayal of a realistic hand is not as important to me as portraying a glimpse distortion of the hand in motion. The simplicity of the female figure dancing in the Flamenco style is the subject of these paintings. The main reason Flamenco dance interests me is because the women have a dominant lead in the dance. The power of women is translated into dancing, flirting and entangling with other figures. The strong and precise movements of these elegant and voluptuous female figures are expressed by harsh drawn lines that lead into other poses. The stylized female figures are freed from the 60 by 48 inches oil and fabric paintings territorial confines of reality. The dull winter colors of evergreen, black, earthly browns and sky blue embellish the dance between female figures. The earthly colors along with the dance is symbolic the dance of life.
Christa Diepenbrock March, 2005 |