Pollentator 2016

Camilla d’Errico’s painting, Pollentator, probably made with oils, jumps out with these two big, staring eyes embedded in the wings of a butterfly. What do you think she was thinking when she decided to put eyeballs on a butterfly, replacing those gorgeous patterned wings? It’s weird, right? There is a strong sense of symmetry, but then she undermines it with the colour of the eyes. One is blue-green, the other, orange-yellow, like it's been caught in headlights. What is she saying here with this jarring contrast? Maybe she wants us to think about how we see the world, how we impose our gaze on nature. Those two colours, the vibrant blues and reds, remind me of the early twentieth-century Fauves, who just threw colour at the canvas with wild abandon. The brushstrokes are really soft and blend into one another, like she’s trying to create a dream-like, otherworldly space. It reminds me that painters are always in dialogue. They transform what they have learned in their own way, and in doing so, invite us to consider how we want to see things.