Promise

"There are many kinds of memory, muscle memory, factual memory, event and place memory... I am designed with two strong sorts, tactile and visual. The visual is obvious, but I’ve worked on it too, memorizing shapes and forms, memorizing color relationships, memorizing figures in motion and recalling it without a reference in front of me. The tactile one has been a challenge. I communicate often through touch, but our society has become nervous of this form of memory, we are all very conscious of ‘Personal Space’. My parents gave me too much personal space, and it has taken me a lifetime to nurture the ‘Tactile Sense’ without scaring people off.

In this painting the man is communicating ‘Promise’ by using the back of his hand, a sort of “I’ve got you on this” memo. There is another aspect to this painting that is rather blatant. I call it the tyranny of color. The hand is not ambiguous because it is connected to the male blue of the shirt, and likewise the arm is obviously a woman’s, as the blouse is a feminine pink; two very conventional tropes. It could, in this instance, almost imply the relationship will be a difficult one, as such polar outlooks seldom coalesce into one softer tonality easily."

Philip Mix, Chemainus BC