The Getaway, Part 2
By C.J. Lori | December 8, 2020
For a week near the end of September, my husband and I escaped to outer Cape Cod (see my previous post, The Getaway, Part 1). While walking in marshes, woods and on beaches, there were many times—seconds, minutes, maybe even an hour—of not thinking about the pandemic, job hunting, and related worries.
One of our greatest pleasures—the dramatic sunsets over Cape Cod Bay. We always try to rent a place with that view, and for the first couple of days, it was spectacular. Vibrant colors across a wide sky. Then the sunsets just disappeared. It turns out the wild fires in California were emitting the obscuring smoke. I thought about friends and family, trees and wildlife on the West Coast. I thought about this whole year, buffeted about by crisis after crisis.
C.J. Lori, “Flotilla,” oil on canvas, 12″x12″ 2020
There is no true escape, only moments of forgetting.
(“Flotilla” is on exhibit in PLENTY, at 13 Forest Gallery, 167A Mass. Ave. in Arlington, MA, through January 8, 2021.)
Copyright © 2020 Steve Bennett
C.J. Lori is an oil painter living in Brookline, Massachusetts. Her work reflects her interest in literature, anthropology and psychology, as well as an abiding fascination with the natural world. She has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New England, and in New York and Chicago, including the Danforth Museum in OFF THE WALL, and Figure, Fantasy and Illusion, Selections from the Arthur S. Goldberg Collection. She won first prize in Paint!, a national exhibition at the South Shore Arts Center. Ms. Lori is represented by 13 Forest Gallery in Arlington, Massachusetts and Array Contemporary in Boston.
A couple of things come to mind when I look at this painting; at first glance I thought of hot air balloons and why not? One thinks of trees as solid, firm. But here they are floating, detached from their deeper roots, lighter than air, on a journey to…? Do these trees represent fragments of our lives breaking free from what we think or thought of as a solid foundation? While I am in constant transition due to boundaries brought on by COVID, I feel the disconnect, things shifting from normal reach, or things no longer in reach.
This is a beautiful piece.
I will look for more of your work, C.J.
Thank you for contributing to PL.
Thank you Ellen. Your interpretation is certainly part of what I am aiming for. I like to explore the contradictions that we live with, like beauty and horror, clarity and mystery. As I say in my artist statement, “In the “Trees Leaving” series, these contradictions also incorporate a touch of humor. They are part homage to Magritte’s floating men in bowler hats, part ecological statement and part allegory of loss, liberation and the yearning for escape.”
Thanks again for your insights!
Yes! Magritte! I will continue to watch for your posts here and elsewhere!
This is a wonderful painting, capturing fantasy and reality all in one statement.
You have matched Magritte in the mystery and humor