Locket 1935 - 1942

Vincent Burzy painted this locket with watercolor and graphite, and something about it speaks to me of intimacy and personal history. I am intrigued by the two halves, one of which holds a portrait of a person, while the other half is empty. Was it intended for a lock of hair, or perhaps another portrait? What are the stories that the locket would tell, if it could talk? What secrets and desires have been held within its dark casing? I wonder, too, about Burzy’s process, and whether he felt the weight of the history of lockets as he painted it, and the people who wore them as a symbol of love and loss. Maybe he thought about how art transcends time, connecting us to those who came before us. In the end, it’s all about people talking to each other, through art.