Debussy: Sunken Cathedral 1996

Maria Bozoky made 'Debussy: Sunken Cathedral' using watercolors, inks, and a whole lot of atmosphere. The blue washes might have been laid down first, maybe wet-on-wet to get that dreamy, dissolving effect. I’m thinking about Bozoky, and what it must have been like to make this. The way the ink scratches over the surface, those nervous, searching lines. Is it raining? Are we underwater? The flute player and her mad umbrella, blobby and jewel-toned, is she conjuring something, or is she just as lost as we are? It reminds me of other painters, like Odilon Redon, swimming in a sea of symbols and strange yearnings. Artists are constantly dipping into the same well, remixing and reinventing. Painting at its best is like that, embracing the unresolved, reveling in the act of searching rather than knowing.