Saundra Fleming is an extraordinary and prolific painter whose viewpoint on the world is entirely different from most. Preoccupied with metaphysics, her work manifests as a kind of maximalist existentialism. Her bold and uninhibited strokes mimic her grandkid’s paintings and drawings, whom she freely admits she is inspired by. Her childhood memories of Hannah Barbera cartoons are also a strong influence in her palette.
Layered candy colors, speed-lines and barrettes accompany incongruous images of someone puking, two people seemingly having a staring competition (one of them is smoking), an upside-down dislocated foot balances atop someone’s head, a floating toothbrush, and random words suspended in the atmosphere. Much of it is quirky and humorous, but there is also intensity. Disproportionate body parts and mangled compositions add tension and anxiety, they intentionally have no to little spatial representation, they are visual descriptions of a disjointed world with its mixed perspectives that we all live in, imagined and otherwise, but even more so for Fleming.
Much of the body of work is influenced by Fleming’s response to the death of her father. He was refused and turned away from mental care and support because of lack of funds and subsequently killed himself; an injustice not only to her father, but to her whole family, exacerbating Fleming’s struggle with her own mental health issues. Fleming says her paintings are all self-portraits representing various times in her life.
In the painting, “Near Death Experience,” she portrays herself striding from chaos to strength. She says: “I have painted myself looking into the space-time that may exist upon Physically dying and being overwhelmed with joy about what I am seeing. Perhaps it’s a fantasy, but a lot of greatness in life is touched with fantasy, in my experience. I have painted myself with a lion’s paw and a general’s uniform on. I have four legs walking into the future.”
She said she was inspired by Gertrude Stein who said she would not come back from France to America until she was a lion. That is why she painted herself with a lion’s paw, in homage to her goal to become a powerhouse intellectual force.
In “Untitled,” she is puking at the news on the television. She said, “I have a very strong belief in this painting as it is at once how I feel about Donald Trump (like BARFING) and how I imagine one of the gods in a religion who blows the breath of life into humankind’s nostrils!” (Visualizing how our collective exhale of repulse and resistance can change things and breath life back into our humanity). She says, “The figure in this piece reminds me of the character REN in the cartoon REN and STIMPY; this makes me very happy because of the ridiculous quality of the head (made from a mud pie of gesso) and the cartoon-like expression of desperation.
“I enjoyed painting the back of my own head.” Fleming says of “Turning Away.” “I made the shoulders appear to be very problematic and the collar to look somewhat like a smirk. The feeling here was experimental, and I was stretching to establish a mood of quiet satisfaction in the figure.”
Concerning “Reading Philosophy,” Fleming says: “… reading philosophy gets you nowhere pretty fast.” (We all know the original philosophers were guilty of portraying a singular perspective view of the world). “Still, the branch of philosophy known as metaphysics has always excited me beyond reason and, ironically, I keep pursuing its study. The person in the painting is wearing a ‘Cheeto frown’ which, when it came out of my paintbrush, delighted me and made me decide to cherish it. A love of ironic comedy is deep in my heart.” Indeed, the Cheeto sad mouth is so sad it’s having difficulty staying on her face.
Fleming says that like Leonardo Da Vinci, she likes to make art about the “movement of the mind.” Her raw, unabashed, expressive paintings are packed with the movement and disarray of her very personal experience of the world around her, laced with a heavy and welcome shot of humor to make it ever-so-slightly more, but not completely bearable, which, let’s face it, is not too far from what we’re experiencing as a nation … on steroids. Meaningful art for our times indeed.
Left to right, row two: “I Was Just Thinking”, “Self with Circle”, “Figure with Cherries”, “Pony Memory” – all watercolor on paper.
Fleming is represented by Columbia City Gallery, 4864 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, and 110 Gallery, 110 3rd Ave. S, Seattle.
Photos courtesy of the artist.
What:
Devine Thresholds featuring Gregory Engel and Saundra Fleming
When:
through March 16
Where:
Columbia City Gallery, 4864 Rainier Ave S, Seattle
Learn more:
https://www.saundrafleming.com/