ins and outs and ups and downs:
As Hudson NY artist Pauline Decarmo began work for her second solo exhibition at LABspace, she experienced a severe flare up of chronic lymphedema, a result of cancer treatment in late 2017. This painful condition makes it impossible for Pauline to paint with her dominant hand.
Fearing that she would have to postpone the show indefinitely, Pauline set out to paint the entire exhibition with her left hand. She had attempted this method of working for about three months in early 2018, while healing from a mastectomy.
The resulting work is powerful, life affirming and triumphant. Pauline Decarmo has created a suite of paintings that spans the breadth of human emotion.
Of this new body of work, Pauline writes:
These paintings are self portraits. But they can also be a portrait of anyone— Perhaps the viewer.