'Captured' 2013 2 to 30 March 2013

Roland Piché

Head of Michelle 2012

Stone and resin mounted on rusted steel.

Not for sale.

Artist's Statement about this series of portraits (Head of Michelle 2007; Michelle in the Raw; and Head of Michelle 2012)

Michelle's lively energy and trusting smile has retianed for me an association with William Hogarth's painting of 'the Shrimp Girl'. That fresh complexion initiated the making of 'Head of Michelle 2007' and led to two others which, because there was no time for her to sit for me, were worked from her presence as retained in my memory.

I decided to build her directly, bit by bit, using very small mixtures of resin, pigment and talc, deliberately avoiding the conventions of more traditional means and positively avoiding illustration or making a copy. The challenge of an artist is not to copy nature but to remake it.

In the 'Head of Michelle 2007', the plumbline signifies the existence of silence and the primary presence of gravity. These formal qualities lead to the bigger questions of Metaphysics and the question, 'What is reality?'

In these heads, the spirit of Michelle is explored as an equivalent to her existence and my reactions to her. In the 2009 'Michelle in the Raw' set on a yellow frame, I explored an even wilder aspect; a vision beyond so called reality, engaging aspects of the unseen.

The 'Head of Michelle 2012' with the stone upon her head confirms the 'Shrimp Girl' connection and generates a more mortal and human existence, capturing her spirit and personality.

'Captured' 2013 - Head of Michelle 2012