The latest painting of Amy Crehore is called “Deja Vu Waltz” and it was featured on Boing Boing today. 

Amy Crehore - “Deja Vu Waltz” (oil on stretched linen, 24″x24″, 2007)

I feel a lot going on in “Deja Vu Waltz“, many levels - an evolution in her own language of expression.  I like how Amy unveiled her latest work section by section - yesterday she showed a Detail of Girl From “Deja Vu Waltz“  and the Birdbath shortly before.  Each section is it’s own painting, like the Cat, Monkey, Devil and Clown.  

The Deja Vu Waltz imagery reminds me of a deck of Tarot Cards, and I’m wishing that Amy Crehore would illustrate and publish a Tarot Deck of her own.

I’ll offer my own interpretation of “Deja Vu Waltz”.  

The Devil is contained, bound to a cherry tree, wings are shown on the Devil because he’s a fallen angel.   The Goddess Diana is taking a bath, but it’s a bird bath while a Pomegranate Tree temps a Black Cat, that’s somewhat ambivalent about stretching to get something to eat (is it worth the effort?).

Meanwhile, the Clown is enraptured by the singing muse with the guitar (a Girl Guitar?) and nude singing muse is one of the most powerful figures Amy Crehore has painted; incredible energy and concentration were put into the girl singer who radiates energy, even as she has her eyes closed, as if she’s singing and playing while in a dreamlike or meditative state.

The Monkey is amused, enjoying the music and eating a banana (notice that Amy uses her familiar motif, arms and legs that morph from animal to human - and are also needed for the composition to work - thereby linking images with two dimensional composition and design).

There’s hope, because a flower springs up from the feet of the nude girl singer.

In Amy’s art, I interpret nudity as purity and while there is some eroticism, the woman figures are more evocative of a refined femininity, a purity with power.

I think Deja Vu Waltz was a difficult painting for Amy Crehore to paint - there’s so much in her paintings.   It’s been said that Painting takes effort to understand - a painting unfolds over time, at least, it should.   

When I look at a painting, often I imagine I’ve painted it and what it felt like - what does the painting feel like?  What would it have felt like to paint the singing nude? Look at the toes, all the attention paid to her toes and the feelings within.  Also, there’s a warmth that comes out at me, from the painting.

If you look at any part of Deja Vu Waltz, and spend some time with it, I think you’ll find the painting unfolds and holds inner meanings.

Wild Cat Fever is a new Amy Crehore painting that was just written up in Boing Boing -

According to Boing Boing:

Monovita magazine has a nice profile of one of my favorite painters, Amy Crehore. (Shown here: “Wild Cat Fever.”)

The garmentless women in Crehore’s paintings exude a lovely innocence with a hint of deviance. The distinction that sets this surrealist painter apart from her predecessors is that unlike the stiff, posed women present in art throughout the centuries, Crehore’s women are playful, socializing with various animals and pierrots.“I guess I am hooked on painting nude women now. It’s an archetype of beauty and represents naturalness. It’s a classic motif throughout art history, yet most nudes were posed,” Crehore said. “My nudes are actually doing things, and they are imaginary. They are very comfortable without clothes. It’s hard to paint clothes anymore.”

Link

I’ve been enjoying Amy’s paintings as she’s been creating them, one by one - I see glimpses of them - and then, the whole thing.   Wild Cat Fever goes into new ground, I feel, with compositional elements unlike other of her paintings  - for one thing, the red flower is backdropped by the sky and there’s a feeling of moving forward.