The Homemaker Instinct and the Flowers that Bloom in Adversity

Gate of Confession

Good Luck Gold

Legacy as Foundations

Vault

Tower of Babel

Ark

Extended Family

Flower Constellations

Muse

There is an assertive spirit in these interior related paintings that gives a feeling of something taking over.

The presence of a painting in relation to a given interior context is a quality by which the audience can appreciate certain effectiveness in a work. Some paintings of weaker presence and content require a lot of help from gallery types of isolation set-up and most of such works desperately connect to the meaning of the cult value of art through the context of the gallery/museum. The recent works of Amy can co-exist with the presence of real furniture and all sorts of articles in any venue or people walking in the middle, and is capable of setting a mood/environment on its own. Its sense of meaning doesn’t require an attachment or ride to a venue that dictates what art is. Both In the subject and spatial requirements of her works, art is present in everyday context. You don’t need to go to a museum or for works to look like it is from a museum to feel the intensity or meaning of art. This doesn’t mean the theatrical conditions in a white cube setting would be meaningless, for one reason it may be the only time audiences can see the works together and I can only imagine for each work to be like windows or doors to rooms that are about to pour and pop out its contents.

Decoration is another aspect of these paintings wherein issues arise. A wall bound work regardless of its serious qualities, as authentic art is in fact used one way or the other as decoration in a house. In most cases the more prestigious work is used as a centerpiece in an interior. Unless it doesn’t get hanged or you have a space equivalent to the setting of a gallery then all paintings are decorative. Therefore, having a relation to ornamentation cannot be assumed negative, especially now that low brow has its own niche of appreciation. The paintings of Amy contain elements of decoration that uniquely doesn’t sink into the background, actually the use of decorative elements are aggressively elaborate that it overwhelms. Here the flowers can’t be seen as captives as they are more of breeding, expanding and sprawling in various dimensions in the pictorial space. There is a progressive track here where we can trace to genres of still life, flower paintings, indoorscapes and base abstraction. That progression is another value we can observe in contrast to paintings that use or align itself to art historical imagery or concept but fail to move forward, and even works that use obscenities or gruesome imagery that cant get pass the predictable. In comparison to the use of elegant imageries of commonly known beauty normally by passed, but now rendered in an assertive stance in the paintings of Amy, those other kinds of paintings mentioned are the ones that could be deemed passive and safe (to what is commonly accepted in the popular art scene).

The homemaker instinct demonstrated through Amy’s recent works includes the primal tendency in nest building where elements are gathered from places the builder has been, and also the territorial protectiveness that enables vicious attitude to manifest. In making sense of the clutter in each of the paintings, it can be detected that these elements are not in the state of having been left behind and on the contrary is in an active change. It is more akin to somebody rearranging or just moved. It is a picture saying that this is not home yet, but it will make up home. The literal image of the interior is not given, better to inspire imagination of what could be done. Although, an ambience is already present- a particular quality from a person that established a home in mind and rendering it in wherever location is at present. Amy draws from personal experiences of re creating homes in various cultural settings as she lives with her family in various places for periods. Now that she’s in Canada there is warmth in the colors of her scheme fit for a winter's gloom or plainly, she could just be carrying over some elements from places she had lived before.

Regarding territorial characteristics, each picture relays that you cannot just come inside, despite the visibility of space. As mentioned, it overwhelms by having the tendency to spill over and not to invite. This is evident in its heavy and massive feel. The picture engulfs whatever element comes near the work making it a contained part. The works imposes its presence and challenges undertakings.

The build up in the paintings is descriptive of the inner workings of Amy's creativity. The choice and arrangement of elements comes from successions of personal creative stages that fluidly manifest through instincts gained through mastery. This range currently expands further back, as she connects to recent knowledge of her grandfathers creative works of sculptural crafts, and also forward as it assumes the culmination of what she has been doing with added new sources of imagery. The build up results to an arrangement where the layers are mashed-up together. Melting, sprawling and interlocking one element to another forms an almost purely foreground-ish mass of thick density. The pictures await the background that will stage them as well as the real life elements in any given setting it could include in its collection of matters.