LAURA SPONG: Renovations By Wim Roefs
The mood in Laura Spong’s paintings often reflects the things that preoccupy her. That can be a book she’s reading, music she’s listening to, art she’s looking at, people who annoy or delight her, a TV program, medical issues or the house she’s renovating. Home improvements kept her busy for long stretches in the past year.
Preparing for the days when climbing the stairs to the bedroom might delight her no more, Spong (b. 1926) added a room downstairs, among other renovations. That process wasn’t without complications, frustrations and anxieties. “It’s so draining and it has taken so much of my attention,” Spong says. “I suppose my retreat has been coming here to my studio.”
“After I had decided to call this exhibition ‘Renovations,’ I wanted to change it to ‘Discombobulated,’ which is another word for ‘state of confusion.’ But the invitation was already printed.”
Her year has been like that, discombobulated, the Columbia, S.C., resident says. “I am sure it shows in my work, though I am not always sure I can see it. I keep revising certain paintings – keep revisiting them because I am not satisfied. But, of course, I’ve done that for as long as I’ve been painting.”
So how did last year’s state of confusion work itself into her work? “Can I just say like Jasper Johns that that is too private to talk about?”
Preferably not.
“I feel like the paintings have been jittery. Some of the ones I thought I was satisfied with seemed jittery when I pulled them out again. But I don’t want to sound negative. Eleanor Byrne once said she felt she was getting somewhere when she could see what was wrong with a painting and knew how to fix it. I feel that I am there now, too, so I feel I am progressing.”
Spong’s home renovation is part of an attempt to simplify her life, she says, and that very intent might eventually translate into more simplified paintings, too. She points at the recent Bridge Of No Regrets. Unlike her intricate all-over compositions, the painting hinges on several strongly worked and defined areas that stand out against wide-open fields of negative space. “Paintings like that seem to be the ones that are kind of speaking to me right now.”
Wim Roefs, February, 2010
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Pay Attention To The Birds, 2010 Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in. |
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Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 18 x 18 in., SOLD |
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Untitled, 2009 Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD |
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Untitled, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in. |
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Untitled, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in. |
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Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in. |
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Whirligig, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in., SOLD |
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Waltz To The Door,2009, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in. SOLD |
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Refreshing As Lemonade, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in. SOLD |
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The Pumpkin Speak One Time Only, 2009, oil on canvas 30 x 30 in. |
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Spring Undercurrent, 2007 – 2009 Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in., SOLD |
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Sunless Riddle, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. |
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And Don't Come Back, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. |
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Speak For Myself, 2009, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in. |
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Shake And Pour, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in. |
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Send For The Clowns, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in. |
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Restored, 2010, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. |
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Refreshed, 2010, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in. |
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Reclaimed, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., SOLD |
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Overhaul, 2010, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 in., SOLD |
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Just Before Spring, 2009, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in. |
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Redo, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. |
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Equal Goby, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in. |
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Bridge Of No Regrets, 2009, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. SOLD |
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At The Banquet The Skull Grins, 2009, oil on canvas 36 x 36 in. |
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Untitled, 2009, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in. |
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| All That Glitters Is Not Gold, 2014, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350 |
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| A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats, 2014, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., $3,100 |
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| We Always May Be What We Might Have Been, 2014, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 in., $9,800 |
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| There Is More Than One Fish In the Sea, 2014, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in., $3,100 |
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| A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush, 2014, oil on canvas, 30 x 48 in., $3,700 |
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| Untitled, 2014, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in., $500/SOLD |
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| A Rose by Another Name Smells as Sweet, 2014, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350 |
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| Atmospheric Thoughts, 2014, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., $3,350 |
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| Who Knows, 2014, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., $1,100 SOLD |
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| It's Greener Over the Fence, 2014, 12 x 16 in., $625 SOLD |
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| Spring Envy, 2014, oil on canvas, 72 x 149 in., $23,000 |
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| Bypass, 2014, oil on canvas, 15 x 30 in., $1,250 |
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| SR I, 2015, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in., $500/SOLD |
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| SR II, 2015, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in., $500 |
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| SR III, 2015, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in., $500 |
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| SR IV, 2015, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in., $500 |
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| SR V, 2015, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in., $500 |
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| SR VI, 2015, oil on canvas, 12 x 12 in., $500 |
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Untitled, 2014, oil on canvas, 36 x 30 in., $2,950
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| Don't Grow Too Old Too Young, 2014, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in., $1,900/SOLD |
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| Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket, 2014, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in., $2,350 |
