“Drink in these waters and remember what you forgot at birth.” - from Obsidian Butterfly by Octavio Paz
Whether staring out at an angry surf or feeling the mental massage of undulating waves, the power of the ocean invokes a kind of hypnosis. Stepping into the water can be a siren call or baptism of relief, but the surge relentlessly laps and loops, caressing or carousing, depending on forces beyond our control. With life’s convergence of serendipity and familial pull, the tides have brought Camille Rose Garcia back to her first gallery, Merry Karnowsky’s KP Projects, where the two women will present Obsidian Butterfly, 14 works on panel and 12 smaller pieces on paper, inspired by the Octavio Paz poem, on Saturday, September 11, 2021.
As Garcia’s fans know, the artist draws from fairytales, William Burroughs and Walt Disney, as well as her Mexican heritage and personal life, in wielding her paintbrush like a magic wand to create a mesmerizing mythology of her own. In her news works, Garcia, beloved by her legion of fans, draws on the ocean as resource. Always inspired by mother earth and her own heritage, she crowns each painting with driftwood, recalling her own mother’s love for collecting those gifts from the sea, which the artist, in turn, has painted black to resemble burned wood - burned wood that recalls the fires that recently forced her to evacuate her forested West Coast home.
So much is special about a Camille Rose exhibition, where glittering theatrics, like mini operas that baptize with fear and offer redemption with their beauty. What is mysterious or even ominous can transform or strengthen. Embrace the dark, savor the smouldering sunset and enjoy the show.
Or, as the poet wrote, “I wait for you on this side of time where light has inaugurated a joyous reign. —Gwynned Vitello
Camille Rose Garcia will appear at the opening of the show, September 11, 2021, at Merry Karnowsky’s KP Projects in Los Angeles.
