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star_120The CAP ArtSpace will present "Peppered," a solo exhibition by local artist Jessica Warner, whose current work playfully dwells between painting and drawing. Jessica uses sticks dipped in gouache to create expressive lines that interact with washes of color. Relationships and implied narrative are suggested by forms that she discovers through her observation of small objects.

Warner is fascinated by line's ability to change the empty space around it. Space becomes energy moving through and around forms, directed and contained by line. Constellations of lines build up or grow into forms that also seem to be coming apart or dissolving. Often the echo of a line or color moves throughout the drawing. Warner thinks of this process as weaving strands of color. These woven images, built of echos and open space, suggest widely diverse narratives, or situations, to viewers.

peppered

Though she begins with still lifes of small objects like hot peppers, roots and beads, the viewer is drawn into a vast world. Often the work implies landscape without absolutely defining it. They become places where groups of characters congregate. The same objects are used again and again, deepening their personal meaning and developing more complex relationships to each other

In this body of work, Warner uses a bunch of dried hot peppers. Each one is unique and can become a distinct character, but they can also, together, become of a crowd. In some drawings, they even fuse together to become a solid object. The drawings aren't about the still life objects, they are about what can be found in trying to see them.

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