“After Dorothea Lange,” is my most recent work and motivated by subjects inherited from our times and drawn from personal narratives, reflecting my interest in philosophy, contemporary thought and sources that span art history. Almost 100 years ago, Dorothea Lange found inspiration away from her commercial salon in San Francisco. She was inspired by the figures in California camps, fields and living in their cars alongside Highway 99. Like today, she also lived in politically divided times in the last century. Her art was compelled by witnessing the class division between her subjects and the privileged politicians and corporations, who like today, discredit scientific and social evidence for their own personal power and greed, resulting in environmental, climate and human disasters. My paintings here pick up where Dorothea Lange’s photographs ended.
Mel Smothers Feb 2024
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