I Wish I'd Done This

'Disasters Of War' by Laurie Lipton, 2003.

Charcoal/pencil on paper, 49 x 59cm.

London based New Yorker, Laurie Lipton has lived and had her work exhibited all over the world. Inspired by the religious painters of the Flemish school and 16th century Dutch Masters, direct and unafraid, Lipton learnt through trial and error that she could never match up to her influences so took to her self-taught, insanely time-consuming drawing technique. Her drawings take longer to complete than most of the paintings she idolised, but the luminosity and detail captures the aching atmosphere connected to her chosen subject matter perfectly.

Although i'm fond of every piece she's created to date, for different reasons, 'Disaster's of War' is the one i wish I'd done. Drawn from the viewer's perspective makes it near impossible to abstain being pulled into the work, the scene is almost too familiar and the singular, intentional use of colour drags the eye past the cleverly placed Guernica to the focus of the piece, the televsion. The disturbing imagery is strangely comforting to me, although whether this should alarm me I'm not entirely sure, is it a reflection on my life...even the lives of every one around me? We see acts of unkindness, hurt, disaster, even terror every single day, around us, on the box or projected onto a politically innacurate plinth by the media. Which has resulted in a numbing, dare i say it, apathetic opinon of war. It would appear the phrase 'seeing is believing' has hit another level. Seeing someone getting blown apart on a screen while we're chowing down on a saturated, 2-minute microwave burger won't touch your appetite, it has next to no effect. Nowadays you have to be stood mid-battlefield, spattered in someone elses blood, waiting to have your own limbs torn from your body at any second...to get a rise. Lipton condemns the viewing public guilty as charged in 'Disasters...', combining the aching black and tone drawing, subtle wit and the symbolicl mockery encapsulated in Picasso's mug o' tea. The powerful political content; clever without being complex whilst retaining such technical prowess and aesthetic structure is what I yearn for in my work. The darkest corners of her mind are revealed and the vengeful streak that flows through each individual piece has me hooked.