2009.91.1

Everyday Breath
1992
82 in HIGH x 82 in WIDE
(208.28 cm HIGH x 208.28 cm WIDE)
Gift of Lenore Pereira and Rich Niles
2009.91.1

Everyday Breath written in charcoal on right and left side of painting and on verso at center next to a drawing of the painting.
OMCA, Gallery of California Art, Open Space 2/3, "2000 and Rising," May 1 - Aug. 1, 2010.

This is an oil and alkyd painting on canvas. The composition is divided vertically in half by light paint on the right, and dark paint on the left. A double row of handprints are positioned along the line where the light and dark color sections meet at center. Three rectangles are painted over the handprints as if stacked on top of one another. Large numbers flank the top rectangle. The numbers "1" and "2" appear at upper left, and "4" and "5" appear at upper right. Text is painted across the top margin, in the top two rectangles, and above the numbers. Symbols painted along the lower edge include an eye, plants forms, and a round piece of fruit.

Per Rene de Guzman: "This work comments on the things in daily life that normally go unseen or unappreciated. It also suggests that within these things there are "secrets" and "mysteries" that we would do well to note and consider. The hand prints remind one of Rorschach tests thereby combining a common symbol (the hand) with ideas of enigma and deeper subconscious meaning. As with many of Carnwath's work, the paint mark takes on a range of permutations from being merely material on canvas to describing an abstract or representational image to tracing words and text, all of which exude symbolic meaning."

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