There is an affecting sense of intimacy to the paintings of Allyson Norwood Bush, exhibited recently at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, in Chelsea. Focusing often, if not exclusively, on the lives of women, her paintings possess a warm humanity that is made manifest in a direct, unaffected figurative style.
"I respond to everyday scenarios in modern, American life, while reflecting on the attendant emotions and feelings of isolation that are exposed while in relationships with others", Bush states. "Women and their self-and culturally-defined roles are particularly intriguing because women so often seem to trade a sense of authenticity for the security and honor of caring for those around them, (i.e. children, husbands, aging parents). My work often addresses how these roles evolve in response to expectation, and how the spirit is often locked into roles that may hinder growth."
In terms of being thrust into the role of caretaker, Bush, knows from whence she speaks, having been abandoned by her father at the age of six, grown up with an alcoholic mother, and been obliged to look after a younger sister while putting herself through college with a multitude of minimum wage jobs. But while her early life in various lower middleclass suburbs of Maryland reads like one of Joyce Carol Oates grittier novels, her own work is remarkably free of bitterness. Rather, she seems to have drawn strength from adversity and sees her art as both ³a self-healing tool² and a vehicle for making the viewer "meditate on feelings that are often fleeting in the hurried pace of today¹s life, while finding a piece of truth that resonates in the moment"
And indeed, Bush¹s paintings do seem to celebrate and elevate ordinary moments into epiphanous emotional events. Thus, a simple image of a middle-aged woman in a print dress, sweater draped over her shoulders, her hair blowing in the breeze as she sits before a body of water, as if for a vacation snapshot, conveys much more emotional impact than the sum of its parts. We sense that this moment constitutes a much-needed moment of respite from a life overladen with responsibility for this woman, the openness of whose smile hints vibrantly at the girl she once was.
Her delight is multiplied by eight in Bush's equally moving painting of a women of various ages holding hymnals in their hands and singing together in a choir. Their open mouths singing in unison project a sense of communal harmony and their colorful dresses or blouses add yet another cheery note, as they share this creative break from what one can only imagine to be the routine drudgery of their wifely and maternal duties.
Other paintings depict women relaxing on a beach, landscapes, or the wistful look on the face of an elderly man with similar insight and empathy in bold flat areas of alternately bright or muted color, inflected here and there with areas of light and shadow to emphasize telling details and nuances of expression.
A sculptor as well as a painter, Allyson Norwood Bush also creates freestanding painted figures akin to those of Red Grooms, an artist with whom she seems to share an abiding affection for humanity in all its imperfect yet ultimately redeemable beauty.