Slipper – Michael Newberry

                        

Slipper is one of my favourites by artist Michael Newberry, who like all great literary and visual artists has the ability to conceive and create scenes of total originality that – just like the great myths and legends that had the dramatic power to last thousands of years in the retelling --  once seen (or read) the world is inconceivable  without them.  In the simplest terms, such artists (and such myths) portray great and original scenes that so perfectly animate their theme the world was almost waiting for the artist to create them.

Newberry does this with his Icarus Landing – the figure that conquers the fall of both Christ and Icarus, and puts man back in charge over his universe.  He does it again with Artemis.  And he does it too with Slipper, whose exuberance burst sout like a bullet in flight heading straight for the furthest horizon.

Why have I chosen it for my first artistic post of the year?  Because it encapsulates the sense of life I like to express in my architecture.  The exuberance.  The light.  The feeling of release.  The movement.  The exaltation.  It’s not an expression of repose I aim for in my work (which is what all the textbooks tell us we should aim for in our architecture – creating a sense of repose and then letting our buildings sink down into a sea of subdued magnolias, or pongas), it’s the controlled explosion of joy Newberry captures so perfectly here, and that’s so desperately hard to do well.

It’s not so easy, but it’s the most fun when you can pull it off.

Copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission to republish.