Mercy's Daughter
Mercy's Daughter, Tim Lowly © 1995, tempera on panel, 28" x 48". Private collection.
This was one of several paintings I made in the mid-90s each of which was a kind of meditation on the life and vocation of a particular woman . They were included in the one person exhibition I had at Condeso Lawler Gallery in New York in 1995. In the case of this painting the subject was Donna Mandel who was part of the contemporary dance troupe Fluid Measure Performance Company.
This painting was inspired by a particular performance that Donna did (at Links Hall in Chicago) with her father where he was sitting at a table running a film projector that was showing a film Donna had shot of him dancing. Donna was dancing in relation to the images on the film and a particularly powerful moment (at least for me) was when the camera zoomed in on his cupped hands and she was standing as if in those hands. The performance spoke deeply to the meaningfulness of the relationship between this father and daughter. In my painting I placed the two of them in the apartment Sherrie, Temma and I had been living in for the first six years of our time in Chicago. The projection is based on an early photograph of Temma with a friend. There are a variety of other significant details such as
1) the various light sources, one of which being the light from the room in the back left which for me is related to Donna's mother who died when Donna was in her teens
2) the arm seen raising the curtain in the mirror on the right which is a quote from Piero's "Madonna del Parto".
3) Donna's pose quotes that of the character of Gilles in Watteau's painting Gilles and four Other Characters
Mercy's Daughter
Mercy's Daughter, Tim Lowly © 1995, tempera on panel, 28" x 48". Private collection.
This was one of several paintings I made in the mid-90s each of which was a kind of meditation on the life and vocation of a particular woman . They were included in the one person exhibition I had at Condeso Lawler Gallery in New York in 1995. In the case of this painting the subject was Donna Mandel who was part of the contemporary dance troupe Fluid Measure Performance Company.
This painting was inspired by a particular performance that Donna did (at Links Hall in Chicago) with her father where he was sitting at a table running a film projector that was showing a film Donna had shot of him dancing. Donna was dancing in relation to the images on the film and a particularly powerful moment (at least for me) was when the camera zoomed in on his cupped hands and she was standing as if in those hands. The performance spoke deeply to the meaningfulness of the relationship between this father and daughter. In my painting I placed the two of them in the apartment Sherrie, Temma and I had been living in for the first six years of our time in Chicago. The projection is based on an early photograph of Temma with a friend. There are a variety of other significant details such as
1) the various light sources, one of which being the light from the room in the back left which for me is related to Donna's mother who died when Donna was in her teens
2) the arm seen raising the curtain in the mirror on the right which is a quote from Piero's "Madonna del Parto".
3) Donna's pose quotes that of the character of Gilles in Watteau's painting Gilles and four Other Characters