Making a House a Home, recent work by Helen Grandy

My friend and studio-mate Helen Grandy just recently had her first solo show up in the R. W. Witt Gallery here at Sac State. We have mostly connected in our shared sculpture classes. Helen would tell you she was predominantly a painter, though she might sound a little conflicted as she said this; Helen does have some wonderful three dimensional work, too.

Helen Grandy - Meet Me With Grace, 6' x 4', 2015

Her solo show, Making a House a Home, is comprised of several of her most recent paintings, all done in oil on varying canvas sizes. Her show is well constructed, with just the right amount of work for the space. As you walk in there are five small paintings(perhaps 5x7s?) hung in float frames to the left and a larger square composition on the right. I really enjoy square paintings. Perhaps it is the sculptor in me, but there is something spacial about them that I can connect with. Or it could be that rectangular canvases in either landscape or portrait format are far more common and more readily skimmed over or dismissed as a feature.

The Witt has an odd layout, and has almost a two room floor plan as it is currently constructed. The second room is longer and somewhat narrow, with two much larger paintings with more traditional landscape canvas sizes on the end caps. The somewhat clean/flat white walls and simple layout of the rooms play well off the hectic yet flowing and calm forms found in her paint. The minimal features in how the work is shown do not compete with the pleasantly busy way in which each painting seems to move organically within its boundaries, adding another positive element to Helen's work.

The pallet that is used is reminiscent of a 1950's or 60's kitchen appliance pastel color scheme, with beautiful blue-greens and warm reds and pinks. It is tough to say if there is any concrete imagery in the work just from a quick glance. They could be shapes and forms of flowers, or flowing colorful liquids in a greater environment. Or the efforts at laying out a more tangible world within the flat plane. The title of the show suggests self discovery. The House in the show title being the place within which one resides, and the desire to make it a Home being akin to the customization and understanding of that space that we all must do when faced with a new residence. The need to identify oneself, to know where one exists in the grand scheme of all things, and to make that location and existence their own. To know oneself. Making a House a Home.