inside-outside
Kristin Cammermeyer
Ms. Cammermeyer's paintings are extraordinary examples of a figurative
and landscape tradition that suggest the dramatic, introspective work of
both Wyeths, Andrew and his father N.C., as well as the superb modeling of
Flemish artists from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Her technique
and work ethic at Cornish was rewarded with a Magna Cum Laude designation
upon her graduation. The artist's professional career has started with a
bang; her exhibitions have been quite successful. In addition, she's proven
herself to be a capable collaborator in several commissioned works for
clients in the US and Europe.
Her newest series, alienation,, is based on scenes from the vanishing rural
areas of Northern Virginia, where the artist grew up. Ms. Cammermeyer has
documented places that have or will disappear as the result of tremendous
growth in this part of the country. Some images feature openfields, farm
houses and barns while others document the "Phony Colonial" track housing of
today's suburban sprawl. The images lack sentimentality they are straight
documentation of before and after, created solely for the record. They are
cold, almost brutal revelations.
Accompanying this series is a group of older interior paintings which
depict window and doorways, emphasizing the directional light in the
otherwise empty spaces. The active "void" in these paintings is strikingly
similar to the haunted, unoccupied feeling of the suburban homes of the
alienation series.
