Decorative Woman

Taken away from the cobble street strolls
Aperitivos and black silk pants

Earth has stopped rotating
People are using Salvador Dalí clocks

Melting in the desert
We melt

The sand hits our eyes and we find safety in the profile of a woman

                                                                 She is missed

The rubbing of her outlines have disintegrated
Eyes are replaced by almonds
Her jaw line coils with silly string
Marigolds navigate the shape of her lips

Hidden behind her ribbons
The scent of thrift store pleather and hospitals
Frame after frame
I can see only red then grey

Roses next to pâté
Coconut spit and bird droppings
Hands being hands

A diagram of her in the flesh

In an exhibition of new paintings, Jamie Felton and Natalie Smith present work that emerged from conversations about how the decorative and ornamental imagery they engage in their practices can be reimagined through painted gesture, narrative and language.

Jamie Felton (b. 1986) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Felton received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed her MFA at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in painting. She participated in Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014). Her work has been exhibited at Nudashank Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Interstate Projects, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, BRIC Rotunda Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Katzen Museum, American University  (Washington, DC), Vox Populli (Philadelphia, PA), Torrance Museum and The Woodmere Museum. Felton has attended several residencies including Millay Colony for the Arts (2014) and The Lighthouse Works (2014).  She has been a finalist for the Dedalus Foundation Grant and awarded the Deans Grant.      

www.jamiefelton.com

     
Natalie Smith (b. Chicago, IL, 1986) lives and works  in Los Angeles, CA. She received her BFA from the University of Illinois in 2008 and her MFA from the University of New Mexico in 2014. Recent exhibitions include Secret Recipe in Los Angeles (2015)  and Fabrication at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, IN (2016). Her work has also been exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, NM, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Tamarind Institute and SCA Gallery in Albuquerque, NM.

www.nataliesmith.info