Essays
Essay from The Power of Enduring Presence Exhibition Catalog
by Kathryn Davidson
The visionary realist paintings of Lynn Randolph re-examine the hurman condition in both personal and universal terms. By re-interpreting cultural symbols and using religious iconography and myth, she creates a new vision. Her painting reveals her training and assimilation of the traditions of both the Northern Renaissance painters and the surrealists. Her dream imagery affirms, challenges, and confronts. Randolph states, “I believe that the ultimate reality is an underlying web of connections. They connect to me and they reach out to other people’s reality and paradigms.”
Throughout her career, Randolph, has painted nudes and examined sexuality from a woman’s perspective. Her MADONNA, (1973), re-interprets a classic religious image into a 20th century vision of motherhood. Framed with an arch similar to a stained glass window, the nude woman sits in a garden with the flower of sexual maturity above her. The woman makes a gesture of cradling a child, evoking a sense of longing and anticipation. Nurturing, caring, and love are implicit in her expression. The physical aspects of reproduction and birth are symbolized in the opossurn in the background. Motherhood is thus presented as a balance between the natural, physical demands of having and caring for a child and the emotional, spiritual demands of motherhood.
By updating traditional images and using what she calls “metaphoric realism,” the artist engages the viewer on many levels. Since 1984, Randolph’s focus has shifted from personal and psychological subjects to social issues with global implications. The painting CREDO, (1990), was inspired by Fra Angelico’s Renaissance painting depicting St. Peter the Martyr who was stabbed in the head and wrote in the dirt with his blood , “I believe in God the King.” She had a vision of a man writing on the planet with his blood. The dream-like realism of CREDO places the viewer in outer space–clearly a 20th century perspective of the earth suspended in the vast universe. The half-naked man placed on a grey cloud writes on the earth with his own blood the word “credo.” A white-cuffed, detached hand holding a bloody knife looms over the head of the young man. Several medieval demons with AK-47 rifles surround him.
This strong visual image suggests that if we can see from a distance the danger that the political and religious systems of the world cause, then we will create a better global vision. She states, “we are in the process of re-making ourselves, images and the world. I believe that art, in its many forms, has the power to change one’s life in a positive way. But this only occurs when connections are made, when one dreams the dreams of others, and brings them to consciousness.”
For these women, art is their way of life. Composing a life out of their studios, while dealing with the multiple responsibilities of family and work, they practiced and perfected their gifts and skills. They have re-created themselves time and again in response to a changing cultural climate and to the demands of their inner drive and resolute determination to follow that inner voice that compels ‘ them to create art. They use their intuitive senses to explore their own ways of seeing the world to project a new artistic vision. They are artists whose individuality is demonstrated in the diversity of styles, materials and ideas. All of these artists convey a commitment to art as a power to communicate both consciously and unconsciously. They are artists who care and make art because the world matters. Their work is infused with the power of enduring presence because it addresses some of the fundamental concerns of our time.
Kathryn Davidson
Curator, May 1991