Indianapolis, IN
Certain artists have the ability to convey through their pictures an entire way of approaching the world. If I told you that Carol Griffith manages to do this in blind contour drawings of buxom ladies who lunch, as well as in a study of three jiggly nudie dancers and one quite overcome male spectator, you’d be forgiven for disbelieving me. But you’d be wrong. Created through an elaborate and painstaking layering process, Griffith’s subjects positively pop from richly toned grounds of deepest ultramarine, sparkling emerald and fleshy blushing pink watercolor. They look part Matisse, part John Wesley, part Aline or R. Crumb—and entirely delightful. That last one is the uniquely Carol Griffith part, and it is irrepressibly joyous and open-minded, the kind that can paint a caricature at once funny, sharply observed and good-spirited. You could hang those pictures of ladies who lunch in the kind of place where ladies do lunch, and only the most uptight of them would complain (as they do about everything). The rest would smile and keep on.
—Lori Waxman 2019-05-01 3:54 PM