This Way Over Obstacle 2016

Zoe Hawk made this painting, entitled 'This Way Over Obstacle', sometime in the 20th century, and it feels like it came into being through a playful act of imaginative world-building. The cool and restrained palette evokes the quiet of childhood; a girl with a backpack is carefully hammering something into a white fence. Is she constructing a secret message? Maybe a coded map? The green hose is a clue—perhaps it will lead us on a journey, connecting one place to another. I sympathize with the artist, trying to get into her head. I imagine Hawk thinking about all the kids who came before, kids she grew up with, their hopes and fears. This feels connected to other contemporary narrative painters, like Elizabeth Peyton, who are in conversation with a tradition going way back to the Renaissance. They all inspire each other's creativity. The paint is applied thinly, allowing the surface to breathe, full of ambiguity and uncertainty. It leaves us room to imagine our own narratives, our own obstacles, and our own ways over.