"Like old photographs, old memories can fade; they are more likely to stay fast in form but stay in color, in texture, in the feel of the space, the charge of the emotional atmosphere. LARAINE MESTMAN'S paintings based on family Polaroids replicate these effects of memory. They capture not times and people past, but the way we in the present recall those times and people: vivid but soft-edged, strangely familiar, full of detail in detailless fields. We all have scrapbooks like Mestman's -- and were we asked to reconstruct them without looking at them, they would look much like this."
- Peter Frank, Editor, VISIONS
"Summer" Oil on canvas 18" X 24"
SELECTED BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
1978 Master of Fine Arts - University of California San Diego, La JollaLOS ANGELES MUNICIPAL ART GALLERY – 4804 Hollywood Blvd., L.A., CA 90027; PASADENA MUSEUM OF HISTORY – 470 West Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91103; LATINO ART MUSEUM – 250 West First Street, Claremont, CA 91711;HAMA - 213 Windward Ave., Venice, CA 9020l;ART TRIP TYCH - 809 Hilldale Ave., CA 90069 GRAFFEO'S - 315 N. Beverly Dr., Bevery Hills, CA 90210;MENDOCINO ART CENTER - 45200 Little Lake St., Mendocino, CA 95460;PRINTED MATTER - M.F.A. Show, Media Center, UCSD, La Jolla, CA; ANA 27 - Holter Museum of Art, 12 East Lawrence, Helena, Montana 59601; curated by Peter Frank; PORTRAITS - 258 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211; curated by Molly Barnes; SAN DIEGO ART INSTITUTE 41st INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION - 2400 Kettner Blvd., San Diego, CA 92101; ABOUT FACE - Barnsdall Art Center, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., L.A., CA; DOCTORS, LAWYERS, INDIAN CHIEFS - Tirage Art Gallery, 804 Foothill Blvd., La Canada, CA 91011; PARKWAY GRILL - 510 S, Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena, CA 91105; WITHIN THE WALLS - Tirage Art Gallery; 804 Foothill Blvd., La Canada, CA 91011; TAKE A SEAT - Universal Studios Executive Dining Room - Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608; DRAWINGS - 1994 - Los Angeles Harbor College Art Gallery, 1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington, CA 90744; DEPAYSER at ARTSPACE GALLERY - 21800 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills, CA 91367; THE SECOND ANNUAL MINIPRINT EXHIBITION - Juniper Gallery/Napa Art Center, 101k S. Coombs St., Napa Valley, CA 94559; curated by Barbara Parsons and Peter Frank; NORTH CAROLINA 10Th ANNUAL U.S. PRINT AND DRAWING EXHIBITION - Greenville Museum of Art, Noah Studios and Center/Gallery-Carrboro; juried by Eric Fischl; KANSAS TWELFTH NATIONAL SMALL PAINTING,DRAWING AND PRINT EXHIBITION - Fort Hays State; University, Hays, Kansas, 67601-4099; juried by David Finkbeiner; ARTIST'S BOOKS, U.S.A. - Traveling exhibition starting in 1977; curated by Peter Frank, New York; WOMEN'S SHOW - Community Arts Gallery, San Diego, CA
1976/77 Regents Fellowship - University of California San Diego, La Jolla
1975 Bachelor of Arts - University of California San Diego, La Jolla
EXHIBITIONS
ARTICLES WRITTEN
1993 "Six Los Angeles Muralists at the Koplin Gallery", VISIONS, Art Quarterly; Fall issue
"Guy Dill at Turner/Krull", VISIONS, Art Quarterly, Spring Issue
1992 "The Burdensome White Man", review of Dominique Blain and Lawrence Gipe, VISIONS, Art Quarterly; Spring
1991 "Reinhard Voight at ANGLES", VISIONS, Art Quarterly, June Issue
1990 "Up-Close and Personal", review of Ilene Segalove's retrospective, VISIONS, Art Quarterly, December Issue
COLLECTIONS
Available upon request
Artist's Statement:
Portraiture can be a photo-realistic image of the subject and also express the feelings of the painter
toward his/her subject, where the mood, feeling and personality of the sitter are paramount to the exact
replica of the sitter. One of the main objectives that I strive towards in my portraits is to "steal the spirit"
of the sitter, a fear that natives have, in the past, been afraid of in relationship to the camera. My
medium for my portraits is acrylic on canvas.
Portraiture is also used to record and document an individual in his/her lifetime and history. Items
and subjects that are physically separate can be put together in a painting. Traditionally, the profession
or status of a sitter was included in the painting, sometimes referring to religious artifacts and social
status. In one of my paintings, "Tony and Frank", Tony is an art collector and owns a number of works
by Frank Stella. His portrait includes one of his favorite paintings.
A portrait is also a more manipulative medium than the cold observation of a photograph of the
subject. You can lie: removing unsightly crow's feet or hanging jowls, or increasing the volume of
them.
Portraits also capture the past and hang onto a particular moment that revive specific memories.
I have had great success in selecting photographs of adults from their childhood (usually black and
white and I "colorize" them) as their portrait. One of my clients wanted a portrait of her husband and
her for their wedding anniversary. She showed me a recent photograph of the two of them.
Because it was a good photograph, I felt that it was obsolete to repeat the image in a painting.
Instead, I found an old photo of her at age nine, expressing her personality and an old photograph
of her husband at age nine, painted two separate canvases and had them framed together
("Margery and Bill"). This also enables the subject of the portrait to let go of the idea of what they look
like now and the distance in time makes it easier to accept the way one looked forty years ago. Old
photographs also have a sense of narrative. They are not quite so posed and there is usually a story
behind them.
Quick, small portraits, approximately thirty to sixty minutes to complete, from a sitting, result in a
mood and feeling more than a photo realistic effect. Especially in these instances, I do feel as if I really
am stealing the spirit of the sitter. Much like the feelings between a mother and child that Mary Cassatt
was able to capture in her work, that is what I hope I am able to do with mine.
| E-mail to: Laraine Mestman |