Figure-Ground Relations: Jessica Stockholder
Figure-Ground Relations: Jessica Stockholder
Figure-Ground Relations: Jessica Stockholder
Ground
Relations
Jessica Stockholder
© 1993 JESSICA S T OC KHOL DE R
Part I — Catcher’s Hollow:
Feeding Station
Launching Pad
3
Part II – Self Portrait
4
With attention focused on the fact of the paint, the figure in the
center seems to be built of, or growing from, little dabs of lighter-col-
ored paint. These little dabs are often bumpier spots or objects on the
surface of the painting. They are little objects on the canvas while at
the same time they seem to be the incorporeal light which illuminates
the figure. The figure is a thing lost in the background, perhaps one
and the same with the background, even while emerging as figure. The
little dabs that serve to illuminate the figure, which allow us to see it,
are themselves figures on the flat surface of the painting.
The image of the figure looking out at us, the consciousness we
imagine behind the eyes, and the light moving through the space of the
painting are all dramas that dissolve into the skin of shiny paint made
up of many sculptured strokes. All of this is stretched over the rectan-
gular-canvas-covered object on the wall that is the painting. So much
happens while one stands in front of this static painting that it comes
as a shock to realize that one has only taken a few steps forward and
back, and to realize the physical stillness of the past moments.