Flowers for Disappearing – Mark Keffer
Flowers for Disappearing –
“Half-Thought, with Reverb” is what Bedford-based artist Mark Keffer titles each of his seven paintings here. But don’t take that to mean they’re incomplete. On the contrary, each represents a whole and robust visual system in perfect balance with itself, similar to a well-conceived landscape but far removed from the realistic. What’s more, embedded in the works is some brilliant commentary. Start with the backdrop. Scraped layers of pastel-colored acrylic (green, pink, tan) combine to form a blurry and unobtrusive foundation, like snow on a silent television in another room. On top of these are abstract figures. They’re the ones having the “half-thoughts.” Some bear faint resemblances to human heads or stumpy people while others are simply shapeless lumps. In one picture, the heads have mouths of sorts. Keffer paints many of the figures in a white-brick pattern, which heightens the abstraction and strengthens their contrast to the background. Far more important, though, is what’s above them: variously colored bull’s-eyes, some connected to each other, some floating alone. Their visual effect is of popping, of random, silent bursts that quickly fade into nothing. In a newspaper cartoon, they’d be thought bubbles with no content. As a result, the figures come across as scatter-brained and incapable of harnessing their own mental activity. Solitary, unfocused beings adrift in an empty environment: sounds a lot like many Americans in the 21st century. Which is quite sad, if you think about it. – Zachary Lewis