magician’s birthday 2016

Editor: This is Michael Cheval's "Magician's Birthday" from 2016, oil on canvas. It feels…layered, almost like peering into a dream within a dream. The perspectives are playful, but also slightly unsettling. What do you see in this piece, from your perspective? Curator: Oh, this painting! It's a veritable funhouse mirror reflecting our deepest desires for wonder and, perhaps, a little bit of control. Cheval paints with such finesse that he lulls us into believing this world exists just beyond our reach. That billowing gown...it's not just fabric, is it? It’s a magician's tent, a portal! Notice how he places the birthday celebrant, child-like, bearing a cake of simple joy at its base, grounding all this whimsy in a feeling of childlike hope. What does it stir in you, as someone just embarking on your own artistic journey? Editor: I see that grounding, but the figures in the background seem so aloof. Like memories, maybe? They feel disconnected from the magic happening. Curator: Precisely! Memories are never quite as vibrant as the present moment, are they? And those figures…they're almost statuesque, aren't they? Consider the traditional symbolism, a hint towards magic as the gateway for something unknown but it feels, more to the point, like Cheval is gently nudging us. Where are we, after all, if not somewhere between reality and our most fantastic imaginings? Isn't that what art *is*? Editor: So, the painting becomes not just a depiction of magic, but a question *about* it. Where does it exist, and for whom? I initially focused on the technical skill, but now it’s more about this meta-narrative he’s crafting. Curator: Yes, my friend! A dialogue, between the seen and the unseen, between our present and the echo of what we once were or dreamed we could be. That, to me, is the true magic. Thanks for taking the time to explore with me.