27 September, 2012

Jack The Ripper Content! Fair Warning!

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Still see pastels as the pretty medium?

Pastel work by Cameron Hampton is by no means timid.  Nor is it for the timid viewer!  The challenges begin the moment you realize the subject is murder.  To be specific, the Whitechapel murders and the unsolved cases attributed to Jack the Ripper are given the artist's treatment. Because the camera was relatively new in the day (1888), the London police used photography to record to distinctly grizzly results of these serial murders.  More is the pity, because if the camera were still to be invented, we would have had proper forensic drawings, and perhaps a little bit better evidence as a result.  

Enter the contemporary fine art of Cameron Hampton.  Her not-delicate treatments, while not intended as forensics, are instead intended to emote the feelings of inhumanity that go along with dismemberment in the streets.  Now go a step further.  Realize that technique and materials, in the hands of the artist, ascend to well more than just the sum of the parts.  Here we have an experience that says more than court records, newsprint and crude photography: it says murder in ways no other medium can say.

Tomorrow: I introduce you to Cameron.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I love this line: ..."technique and materials, in the hands of the artist, ascend to well more than just the sum of the parts." You should be quoted with that one! Great post!

Casey Klahn said...

Thanks, Ketherine.

SamArtDog said...

I meant to thank you yesterday for mentioning Cameron Hampton, but I got tied up looking at everything I could find about her online. How remarkable she is! Good of you to let us all know about her. Thanks.

Unknown said...

One of my favs...

Casey Klahn said...

Sam and Maryann - you are very gracious. Cameron is also a favorite of mine.

loriann signori said...

Hi Casey! Thanks for the introduction to Cameron's work.Two great posts about her. Wow!

Casey Klahn said...

Glad to get the word out on Cameron's art. Thanks for commenting, Loriann!

Abstract Expressionism, Art Criticism, Artists, Colorist Art, Drawing, History, Impressionism, Modern Art, Painting, Pastel, Post Impressionism