Black Mamba 

Editor: This is Troy Brooks' painting "Black Mamba", an acrylic painting portraying what seems to be a rather fraught encounter. The heavy reliance on shades of pink definitely casts an eerie, dreamlike pall over the scene. What do you see when you look at this work? Curator: Formally, the picture plane is divided quite distinctly. Notice the sharp contrast not only between the dark figure of the woman and the man but also the violent spray of dark fluid emanating from seemingly nowhere. This disruption plays against the smooth surfaces, sinuous lines and repetition of forms to disrupt the almost Rococo-like scene. Note the symmetry and curvature in architectural details. Editor: I see what you mean. Even the legs of the table mimic those curves. And the bouquet echos the splatter of color. So, the composition is designed to give us clues? Curator: Precisely. Brooks plays with the viewer’s expectations of both portraiture and surrealism. Note the flat expanses of color versus the almost photo-realistic renderings of the figures' faces, hair, and clothing. He invites us to visually decode these relationships. Are we looking at a rupture, a corruption? Editor: Now I see it! I had been focused on the apparent narrative but the stark construction gives the work tension. Curator: Indeed, Brooks wields formalism with remarkable skill to provoke such questioning. His calculated construction reveals underlying themes we, as viewers, actively reveal. Editor: It’s a fascinating approach; I learned a great deal! Curator: Likewise. I hadn’t considered its disruption of painterly traditions as explicitly before.