Maxine Solomon

Artist Statement

A WORLD WITHIN OUR WORLD

I paint because I must. It is my way of processing that which I see and feel in our world. My paintings speak not only of our world's common heritage but of its endangerment - of the withering away of both the environment and the diversity of the world's unique cultures. As indigenous societies are propelled toward modernity, we lose the knowledge accumulated over thousands of years. As trees are felled and ancient societies are uprooted, a unique vision of life is fading in a single generation -- languages, traditions, new biological discoveries.

Each of my many layers of paint build on the previous one, sometimes delineating, sometimes obliterating. Beneath these layers, reside faces, homes and lands of the indigenous people who once occupied the territories depicted in the paintings. As viewers search for what lies hidden within my many layers of paint, my hope is that they will also think of what lies hidden in our world, and what is lost when we dismantle this polychromatic world of diversity. Cultural beliefs generate different realities, separate and distinct from those into which we were born. Our perception of reality depends on our life's experiences however, and it's easy to fail to appreciate the foreign. The real may blur into abstract, and clarity can give way to obscurity. In my paintings, I investigate this struggle between perception and reality, between the ephemeral within the permanent and the beauty amid the destruction. Perhaps these paintings can help us to think about indigenous cultures and their unique ability to live in harmony with their environment. This in turn may help us all to better preserve ours, and live harmoniously with the worlds within our world.

DEFENESTRATION - OLD HUGO HOTEL

The Old Hugo Hotel (Defenestration Building) on 6th and Howard Streets in San Francisco has become a much-loved icon. Twelve years ago it became a sculpture installation. It was recently taken by eminent domain by the City of San Francisco and condemned to demolition. After negotiations between the City and the artist-creator, Brian Goggin, the huge art installation was granted a year and a half reprieve. At that time, it will be torn down in favor of housing. The "Defenestration" paintings immortalize the interior of the building, with its redwood beams and plaster dust covered floors and undersized claw foot bathtubs.