Virginia Mallon 

This series, part of American Toile, called fermata, reflects on the people who have influenced my life – those who are still present and those who have passed through during a long and often unconventional journey. They exist in a state of fermata, a pause in the music, between remembering and forgetting, where reality blends the living and the dead, friends and foes. These ghosts in paint reflect my own American experience as a woman and an artist.

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The artwork combines portraits of individuals I know with glimpses of strangers encountered in passing, merging both personal stories and their  imagined narratives.

 

Fermata delves into the nature of memory – what is retained and what is lost. It's an exploration of ethereal realms, significant events, and the spirits of those who have shaped me, their influence echoing through my creations on canvas, stone, wood, and cloth.

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Today, with the daily threat of death and destruction across the planet, fermata is an escape  route, leading from the lessons of past to the trials of the present, with the hope of an imagined, recalibrated, and less toxic,  American future.