Heart in Hooves
NU Movement Gallery, Rochester, NY
May 2015
Over the years that I have counted myself a horsewoman, I have spent hours upon hours closely watching the animals I loved and cared for. I would watch them as they exuberantly played with each other, dramatically fought for pecking order, audaciously flirted with one another, and subtly communicated through an almost hidden body language. As I grew in my understanding of this creature, I learned that a powerful gesture can have just as much meaning as the slightest swish of a tail. I have reached a point in my horsemanship where I have trained my eye to observe all movements of the horse’s body, not just the dramatic rear or sharp buck, but also the slow yarn and the soft exhale.
In this series of paintings, I wanted to reflect the ways in which horses communicate and express themselves. Each painting in this series is meant to depict a horse in a different act of expression. It may be a big dramatic show of agility, or it might be a soft eye and one ear turned in mild interest.
I hope these paintings can take the viewer into the visual world of the horse person. It is my aim to challenge the viewer to meditate on each of these horses and ponder what it is they might be saying. All focus must be fixed over every curve of the equine form and how it moves on the canvas to determine the message being expressed, just like a horseman would do when surmising the animal in front of him.
