Missy Lipsett — APPLETON ART DESIGN

Missy Lipsett

This series, "Reliefs", evolved from two earlier series, "Plasticity" and "Plane Painting". The need for a more intimate and kinesthetic process had emerged and I needed to actually feel the canvas and shape it rather than use it as just a surface for a painted illusion. I was interested in questioning what makes a painting and at what point a painting, in being released from its supports, becomes sculptural.

I have long been fascinated by the rendering of drapery: drawn, painted, sculpted, photographed. The drapery in Greek and Roman statues and the folds in Renaissance paintings captured my focus, and prompted the need to answer these questions: What does drapery conceal? What do the folds reveal? I am especially interested in engaging the viewer's attention with these reliefs, as they emerge from the wall and contradict the flatness against which they rest. The colors interact with each other in relief, then the relief reacts to the space around it.

I am interested in how the viewer is drawn into the visual topography of the relief; whether it is the color, or interaction of the colors, that attracts the viewer, and whether the positive and negative movements of the canvas draw the viewer's attention.

Just as I have become closely involved in shaping the canvas and breathing color onto the interacting forms, the viewer can become engaged in the conversation and movement of the forms as well. Light and shadow introduce subtle changes and allow for different visual experiences. In repositioning the body, the viewer perceives new relationships and interactions. What seemed flat, now takes on physical dimension. What appeared to have height from one vantage point now becomes more 2-dimensional.

This work invites the viewer to become a part of a landscape in which the canvas has been liberated from traditional supports in order to explore new visual territory.

Missy Lipsett holds degrees from Yale University (MFA, Graphic Design) and Princeton University (BA cum laude).

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 30x47

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 34x61

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 27x34

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 23x33

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 30x47

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 34x61

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 27x34

Relief. Acrylic on Unprimed Canvas. 23x33

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