Becky Parisotto Commentary

The Drawers - Becky Parisotto Commentary written by Julie Oakes

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Highly Recommended, Jan 11 - Feb 20, 2007

Trompe l'oeil or 'fool the eye' paintings hold a respected place within the history of art, whether used as a teaching tool or the trump card of artists. There is a temptation when in possession of a 'good hand' to display the expertise. After all, the rewards are great for the layman reacts to the ability to depict - to the point of tricking him into believing that he is seeing the actual rather than the drawn facsimile of the object - as the exhibition of god-like skill. The artist knows otherwise. There is nothing brave in the exhibition of draftsmanship; it is almost shameful to permit the hand to be admired as if at a peepshow of talent. But within slight of hand and the magic-making reconstruction of phenomena, there falls the very substance of art. That Becky Parisotto has chosen to depict objects made from folded paper with such care and attention is a point worth noting for by edifying humble paper playthings (a paper hat, origami bird, paper dolls or paper airplane) and paying attention to the slighter skills of construction, the acts of both making and depicting are heightened. Combine this intersection of the minuscule and the majuscule with an adept ability to depict and a phenomenal object results replete with all of the aesthetic components that make up a work of art.

Religious practice often returns to simplicity in order to clear the mind for the grander concepts. Hence, a monkish cell, restricted diet or disciplines of mind and body both foster and sustain spiritual perception. Parisotto, by focusing on the details of the folded paper pieces, realizes the intricacy of the three dimensional world as it is able to be transformed into a different dimension - the second - through the miraculous human action of drawing and coloring. The co-ordination of eye to brain to hand is sophisticated, intellectual and sufficiently academically adept to perform a conjuring - an object upon a surface so that it appears to exist within space, with a front and back, surround of atmosphere and all taken from a specific and understandable point of view. There is a profoundly human statement in trompe l'oeil work for we have the ability to not only comprehend the transformation that has occurred, but also to perceive the difference between those who can accomplish the trick, the slight of hand, and those who can't. It is the magnetism of artistry that draws the viewer into Becky Parisotto's fine drawings. And it is her humble choice of subject matter that takes it far beyond posturing.