Michael Brophy: Recent Paintings
Laura Russo
Gallery,
Portland
Sept 6, 2001 - Sept 29,
2001
 Woody Guthrie Singes the River Electric (2001), oil on canvas |
Michael Brophy's paintings of
theatrical tree stump graveyards left after a clear cut are
distinctly Pacific Northwest. "We live in one of the largest
clear cuts," says Brophy when speaking about Portland. "When
I see a clear cut there is something very grand and amazing
about it, but it's also very dark and tragic." His
large-scale paintings carry these ominous feelings.
Brophy's smaller scale works are mainly gauche and many
contain a chronology which he compares to a comic strip. A
series of 26 works tells the story of the decline of the
environment along the Columbia River, starting with the
Chinook people, early fishing and trading, outbreaks of
malaria, the development of settlements, dams, power lines
and channels, and ending with the river's recent tourism
boom and "city coat".
In his piece Woody Guthries Sings the River Electric, Brophy
portrays the songwriter in the landscape and in song. It is
the push and pull, the passing time and the double-edge that
exists in most of life's situations (especially around the
environment) that Brophy is painting. However, this artist
is not the "tree-hugger" that his paintings may make him out
to be. Brophy is much more interested in irony and the
quirky situations that exist between the landscape and
humanity.
© Allyn Cantor