Lisie S. Orjuela "flowershells & honeycombs" oil on canvas, 2007, 60” x 63”

What a day it was Tuesday, April 27, 2010, to visit the Lisie S. Orjuela exhibit at the New Haven Public Library.  En route to the exhibit, thick grey, ominous clouds suspended in the sky and then suddenly, the sun split the skies on the eastern horizon and for a minute or two the sky was evenly split between utter darkness and utter light...and there I witnessed the Divine's manifestation of what the artist Orjuela conveys so vidividly in her canvases namely "The World of Paradoxes."

 

As I entered the exhibit, I first encountered "Still Gathering/Enough" (50" x 68" oil on canvas, 2007), an oil on canvas triptych.  Before my eyes could comfortably settle upon some of the more restful colors in the first and third panels, my eyes shifted to what appeared to be a face which manifested in the mid-panel bearing jaundiced eyes...and one could sense the darkness and struggle coexisting amidst the pinks and muted landscape of the panels.

 

Against the far wall, I experienced "Flowershells & Honeycombs," (60" x 63" oil on canvas, 2007), another oil on canvas triptych.  The dimension and texture of this painting up close is remarkable.  Through the layering of paint, I really got a sense of the expiration of time...as the black especially appeared to have been applied at the very last, I sensed that time itself was responsible for bringing "struggle" and "contradiction" to this otherwise restful and fluid place where flowershells and honeycombs did abide.

 

And, indeed, in "Blown Through," (60" x 65" oil on canvas, 2009), an Orjuela diptych, the "disruption" and "disconnect" is achieved sequentially.  Whereas in the first panel, the birds appear upright, I found their fate turned upside down in the second panel where the glass is "blown through."

 

In "Milonga in Violets," (12" x 16" oil on canvas, 2001), light and the figure's connection to the earth really seems to prevail but for the deep red/maroon that lurks at the figure's back...And even in "Abandon," (12" x 16" oil on canvas, 2001), although we see a female nude figure in repose, dark maroon circles and streaks surround the figure seeming to manifest the possibility of "disruption" and disquietude and we cannot fully "abandon" our thoughts to the figure alone.

 

And, this is what I find so remarkable about Orjuela's paintings.  Whether the "disruption" or "disconnect" is achieved through layers and layers of paint or whether the "disruption" or "disconnect" is achieved sequentially over a course of two or more panels, "the world of paradoxes" is never far away...and whether it consistently coexists in each and every life situation or whether it merely lurks on the horizon is perhaps a matter of personal interpretation but the struggle is ever present and brilliantly captured in Orjuela's oeuvre.

 

Thank you again, Johnes, for introducing another high calibre artist.  As an artist and art lover, who has followed most of your shows from the old York Square Cinema to new spaces including the New Haven Public Library, I am ever thankful for how your sophisticated eye has kept the New Haven art scene fresh and new.

 

Cordially,

Donna Marie Joyce