K. Libbey Nash and Luxuries --- Day 2/93

Walk: JCC, Trader Joe's, Fillmore Street
Distance: 4 miles and take yoga class

Just mailed in my tax money which means it is now the time of year I budget for next year.  Fortunately for the past few years I've had an opportunity to include the category: "Extras, Luxuries."

In 2012 my Absolute Favorite of those were my K. Libbey Nash* art works. They have such presence and add enormously to my life around the home front. The aspect's of Nash's art that especially call to me are two.  The first is her color sense which is amazingly sophisticated.  She is able to work in muted tones, rich, earthly tones or clear, vibrant colors, and, no matter what her palette, there is a boldness in the number of colors she works with and her ability to lay them on a single canvas (or other surface) - often in very close proximity - so that each continues to hold its own but still derives energy from the adjoining or surrounding colors.  (Hard to articulate - suffice it to say she does not come up with mud).

And then there is that Energy.  Each work has it strongly, and, most importantly, truly.  There is integrity in her vision and in how she conveys it.  This is tricky business because there are many artists whose works exude what appears to be energy - vibrant colors, squiggles, intense lines, emotional imagery - and yet their energy does not ring true.  It is all facile surface excitement. You see so much of that there is no need for examples. Then there are artists who somehow kill the energy even in their true desire to make a statement.  Again, we've all seen finely rendered landscapes which, sadly, are dull to the eye and senses.  The beauty portrayed clings to the paper or canvas and doesn't energetically reach out to the viewer.

Happily there are the true artists who can take an ordinary scene - think of the Impressionists - and convey it in such a way that you are struck with joy or tenderness or compassion or some other deeply felt reaction. These artists/their works make you think and feel; energy is released in you, the viewer.  K. Libbey Nash is in this category.  The bar has been set high for this year's "Extras.."

*  For more on K. Libbey Nash, check out these past entries: Days 154, 272, 274, 2/41, 2/42, 2/44, 2/45 and 2/66.  Or you can check out her website: 

klibbeynash.com