Me Time 2018

Carrie Graber painted 'Me Time' with what looks like oils, and the crispness of the scene suggests a meticulous approach, but the reflections in the water, they're less precise, more intuitive. There’s something about the light in this painting that makes me think of Hockney, but also Hopper—that stillness, the sense of a narrative paused. Look at the surface of the pool, how she’s rendered the reflections with these subtle shifts in tone, almost like a Rothko. It’s not just about depicting water, it’s about capturing a mood, a feeling of suspended animation. Graber leaves these little breadcrumbs of process visible in the surface, in the slight variations of tone. It reminds me that a painting isn't just a picture, it's a record of decisions, a kind of choreography of color and form. And ultimately, maybe it’s about how we all seek moments of stillness, of "me time," in a world that’s constantly in motion.