Discovering Art and Art History: Lulie Wallace

Lulie Wallace, Flowers For Amandah, 18 x 18 inches, acrylic on wood

Lulie Wallace, Flowers For Anna Gray, 16 x 20 inches, acrylic on wood

Lulie Wallace, Flowers For Bailey, 24 x 24 inches, acrylic on wood

I first saw Lulie Wallace's work through my frequent trolling over on Pinterest. Then it caught my eye again on over Oh Joy! here. I am drawn in by the colors and I love the graphic, flattened shapes of the still lifes. At first you don't realize what you are looking at, it seems abstract, only shapes on a canvas. Then you see the outlines of each shape, snaking around the picture. The objects are deconstructed to their basic forms, then loosely stitched back together. Wallace takes something familiar, makes it foreign, then makes it familiar again.

It reminds me of when I go somewhere new and I don't know my way around. There are familiar things like grocery stores, restaurants, cars, buildings, people, but I don't know the cadence of the streets or the strategy for talking to the butcher or the shop keeper. But as I spend time in that place, as I walk down the same paths, I learn the lingo, I remember the habits of the locals. I start to notice how the neighbor's cat sits on the window sill every morning and the mailman comes at 12:35pm. I know how to ask for coffee at the cafe or buy shoes at the store. As I learn my way around each curve of the street my steps are familiar and fresh at the same time.

Besides my clear obsession with her aesthetic, Wallace's work is also appealing to this young collector - a lot of her pieces are currently priced below $500! I better scoop one up before you do...