The Empress 2020

Zoe Hawk painted "The Empress" sometime in the late 20th century with what looks like layers of acrylic. It’s a world of flat planes, not fussed about blending, just stacked up. Look at the dress, all those rose colored folds, kinda stiff, like it’s been starched and ironed within an inch of its life. The paint's opaque, dense, no light getting through here. And then, those balloons, bobbing around, they look like hard candies, almost good enough to eat. There's a real directness to the whole thing, like each element is doing its own thing. It reminds me a little of Balthus, with his slightly unsettling, staged scenes. But Hawk brings her own sensibility. Ultimately both artists remind us that art doesn’t have to be about answers, it can be about holding onto the questions.