Silver Shoes 

Curator: Oh, the horse. The very, very glorious horse. What a beautiful piece this is, all freedom and raw strength caught in a moment. What leaps to mind when you first look at it? Editor: It feels... contained, strangely. A powerful animal, yes, but the almost minimalist landscape around it, those slightly suffocating pale walls, it's a curious juxtaposition. The horse is bursting forth, yet held. Curator: Absolutely! That tension, that’s where the painting lives. Julie Bell, the artist, masterfully captures that. And I use “captures” deliberately, like corralling this boundless energy. She has been painting since the late 1980s, mainly focusing on figurative works like this one here and working primarily with oil paint. Editor: Yes, oil on canvas, which contributes to the depth of color. Look at how the light seems to radiate from within the horse's coat itself. Now, would you describe this work as an animal portrait, placing the animal on a pedestal like our historical human portraits did, maybe for propaganda purposes, given this kind of composition and the emphasis of genre painting elements in the subject matter? Curator: Possibly, and it does look heroic with that dynamic stride, so she can be considered as part of the propaganda if we talk about marketing livestock to the audience of that time. She often paints figures idealized like that, both human and animal. The landscape, or what there is of it, supports that. There is an almost surrealist bent with the color blocking background, which throws the focal object into even greater, richer reality. Editor: That’s fascinating. And it highlights the tradition of realism as a perfect vehicle of social narrative, given that realism is never just "real," it is constructed by an author from social needs, that’s where realism serves its function to impact the public opinion on any theme it conveys. Curator: Absolutely. It speaks of human-animal bond but with respect and celebration, not control. What do you think about the use of title of this work, why naming this painting 'Silver Shoes?' Editor: That detail of the shoes on the foot adds such unique, almost otherworldly energy, this touch gives such playful feeling and make me keep looking again and again at it. I like the energy, the painting makes me want to be untethered, just like the horse. It is about taking control of life with the element of play. Curator: Exactly. It’s joy, freedom, distilled and splashed onto canvas. That moment of perfect balance of being! I’ll keep dreaming that kind of life through art and play.