Bush Leaves 2013

Abie Loy Kemarre made this painting, "Bush Leaves," with countless tiny marks of white and blue-black, a painstaking process I can only imagine, layering and repeating, a meditation on nature. There is an incredible amount of work and patience needed for this all-over composition. I get a sense of the artist’s hand moving across the canvas, each tiny leaf carefully placed to build up density, each mark contributing to a shifting pattern. From afar the image looks almost grey; up close it is alive with movement. This work reminds me of Agnes Martin and Yayoi Kusama, of artists who use repetition as a way to find grounding, to create these optical, vibrant, and immersive artworks. Artists are always in conversation with one another, responding to each other's ideas, and inspiring new ways of seeing. There are multiple ways to read this piece; that's the joy of painting—a process of perpetual discovery!