PAMELA MURPHY – IT'S ALL IN THE GESTURE

Monday, January 9th, 2012  |   Posted by :  marybeth

by David Penpek

As we pull up to Pamela Murphy’s farm, we are stopped by a fence and get out of the car to pull it away from the driveway before pulling into the property. We are here to film a segment of the Door Guide Publishing TV series “Door County Today”. Pam steps out of the barn door and waits for us to approach. Pearl, the aging Jack Russell terrier, comes running and barking at the same time – which tires her out for the rest of our visit.

There is a quiet comfort about Pamela Murphy; it bleeds through into her art, which beckons the viewer to abandon the hectic nature of time for just a few moments. So we do.

We step into Pamela’s studio, a barn converted into a bright spacious area that has several works in progress, canvases hanging on the walls. Pam prepares her canvases by covering them with several layers of oil paint, just 2 or 3 colors. After they have dried, they are then soaked for three days in a basin. After the soak, the canvas is then required to dry once again. Once a canvas and all of its layers are dried and ready, Pam lays the canvas on the concrete floor of the studio and takes a paint scraper to it. This process gives the canvas an old fashioned look and feel, like an old fence that was once painted every year, now in disrepair, revealing its history as the elements take their toll. Her canvases are un-stretched – meaning they have no wooden frame – until they are finished. This allows Pam to let the art dictate its size and scope as opposed to being forced to work within the confines of a pre-determined size. It also allows her to use the weight of her body during the scraping process on the floor.

Pam’s pieces, for the most part, contain a person or persons from old photographs which she acquires from people getting rid of old albums and even from people on EBay. She uses snapshots pre-1960s, and always black and white. Pam explains that there was just something in the way people responded to a camera in that era, not in portraits, but in snapshots. People had a different sort of reaction back then, as opposed to soon after, when cameras became a household item. I ask her how she chooses a photo to use in a painting, without hesitation she replies, “it’s the gesture”. She goes on to explain that she chooses a subject by what moves her, and that it is always something in the way the person is positioned – the “gesture”. She leafs through a stack of black and whites that have made the cut and shows us some examples. A young girl in a sand box holding a toy ball, a young boy riding a live pig, that makes us all chuckle. “Now this has to be a painting,” Pam tells us. Pearl barks in agreement.

Next, Pam scans and transfers the black and whites to a non glare paper which makes it easier to project the image onto the canvas, which is now hung on the wall. She uses charcoal to draw the image onto the “element-worn” canvas with the help of an opaque projector. The projector allows her to size and position the image. After the image is completed in charcoal on the canvas, Pam fills in the entire figure with white oil paint. We watch as she works lovingly and gingerly with the person on the canvas, the black of the charcoal bleeding in with the white oil, creating amazing depth and dimension. Later, Pam will glaze over the white with a pallet muted colors, maintaining the old fashioned feeling of the canvas it now resides upon. A varnish is then applied to the entire painting to marry the subject to the background.

I ask Pam if she ever gives a history to the subjects in her work as she paints them. She responds that its more interesting to her to let the observer come up with that on their own. She has many people tell her that a painting reminds them of an old relative or friend, and she likes that the anonymity of an old photo can translate into a meaningful experience, just by means of a person’s memory. Pam says it well on her website: “My subjects have been disconnected from their original context and are recreated as icons for the viewer’s personal connection. Each viewer brings with them their own specific history, so a single image can mean different things to different people. The figures in my paintings exist in situations—or as objects—in which I hope the viewer will find a little of themselves.” When asked what the most difficult part of the process is, she says “the naming of a piece is the hardest part for me.” She has been known to have friends over for dinner and not allow them to eat until they have come up with names for the new batch of paintings! I’m sure her friends have all made a mental note to have a snack before going to dinner at the Murphy’s now.

What is remarkable is how committed Pam is to the feeling of her art. Her subjects along with her process create an end result of a new piece of art that looks and feels as if it were transported here from the past. We wrap up our time with Pam as she and her husband John show us around the farm. They raise the majority of their own food on their property. Its clear that they find peace, solace and even entertainment from living off the land. As we load our equipment back into the car, Pam disappears into the farm house. She emerges moments later with 2 generous portions of "chèvre", goat cheese, and an admonishment to make sure to eat it within the week, “because it is fresh!”

Pam’s work can be seen at Fine Line Designs Gallery 10376 Highway 42 (on the north end of Ephraim). For more information, and to see more of Pamela Murphy's art, visit www.pamelamurphystudio.com. I highly recommend seeing her work in person so you can witness the amazing textures and layers that her technique produces.

Watch for the segment about Pamela Murphy on the February 2012 Edition of Door County TODAY, right here on www.DoorCountyTODAY.com. 

Painting Titles from Top

Hoping For Honey

87

Vintage

Windicator

Solo

Little Dragon