Sondra Strong work in V.I.T.A.L. show

  • Sondra Strong work in “V.I.T.A.L.” show

A couple of folks have objected to my use of the word cartoon-like to describe the lines that Sondra Strong (“VITAL that you go”) uses in her paintings. It’s a word that I don’t mean to be pejorative, but apparently I didn’t convey that.

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By cartoon-like, I mean non-mannerist, stylized. Her figures are outlined — as they might be in a drawing — and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. I like the work.

Still, I can see how someone would think I meant something less than artistic by cartoon-like. So help me out here, Candy fans. What’s a better word to convey this style of mark-making?

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I stick by my guns on my wish that she would not avoid the face. In the painting above, I love the palette and the pillowy forms and the hand cradling the baby, and I’m glad she suggested a face in this particular piece. “The face is the mirror of the mind” someone once said, and a figure without one leaves us wanting.

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