Girl 1963

Vilen Barsky made this curious painting “Girl” with crayon, carving the composition through a field of dark scribbles. I love how the body is formed through these outlines of color, and the more you look, the more shapes you see, like those two red circles floating within the body. What do they mean? I wonder if Barsky began with the black field, then drew the ‘girl’ on top, or if he was working back and forth? It looks like the red outline is trying to contain the explosion of lines, the feeling of the figure. Barsky reminds me of other self-taught artists like Forrest Bess, who used painting to ask questions about what it means to be human, what it means to have a body. These artists weren't illustrating answers, but rather, using the process of painting to embody the questions. And that’s what makes looking at paintings so exciting! It's about experiencing a mind in action, working through thoughts and feelings in real time.