On the Other Hand.
Michael Gibson Gallery (2022).

In the Fall of 2021 a series of 12 paintings, one for each month of the year, were displayed at Michael Gibson Gallery as an attempt to address my toddlers’ question ‘what colour is the window?’ (VIEW HERE) The paintings in the exhibition used various methods of paint application to depict the view out of the front window of our home at nighttime. From this view, the darkness of the exterior landscape and the illumination of the interior space created a perceptual phenomenon where we were simultaneously aware of the depth beyond the window, the reflection behind the window, and the surface of the window itself.

Whereas the past series of paintings depicted a view looking outside of our home at nighttime, the current body of work depicts the reflections and spatial fluctuations that occur when looking into our home during the daytime. If the previous paintings served to act as a visual analysis of the colour of a window for my inquiring toddler, these new paintings act as both an extension and counterargument to that description.

In addition to formal painting concerns such as surface, depth, light, and colour, they are also conceived of as analogous to a photographic negative – an inversion of light from the previous body of work. Furthermore, I situate them within a conceptual framework of the everyday and the domestic. They are about looking from the perspective of both child and parent: joy and anxiety, learning and growth, the commonplace and the passage of time.

Mike Pszczonak would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for the generous support towards this project.