Fearless Prayer II – transparent oil on gelatin silver; 20 x 16 in.
Alison Overton
Making art, in particular photographs that chronicle a moment in a changing landscape, is my passion. As a lifelong artist, I strive constantly to explore and expand my definition of the unique and mysterious in life and nature. I love to utilize simple, manual film cameras such as the Holga 120 S (which I have used to make these photographs) to capture images that have an ethereal and timeless quality.
One of the recurring themes in my work is the architectural landscape with a sense of history. The three images of statues entered were made on a trip to England this past spring, while visiting an old London cemetery and Blenheim Palace, among other places. The statue of the young girl hanging onto a giant cross in Fearless Prayer I and II calls to mind Mary Magdelene’s fervent desires to better know Christ (both spriritually and earthly), and the male statue in The Ideal calls to mind Adonis, the Greek idea of human perfection of the male gender.
By carefully shooting, printing, and overpainting with transparent oil paints, these finished works reveal my idea of these statues as they might appear in a daydream or on another plane of existence, and as if our rules of time, space and perspective did not apply.
© Alison Overton