Artist: Ashley McNamara

A Half-Healed Bruise, 2003
Oil, Ink, and Pastel on Canvas
24" x 24"
https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/ashley/painting_bruise.html

This painting emerged from too much loss to reconcile and too much beauty to hold in one head. The title came from a series of old poems called Sandpaper Valentines. Like so much of my older work, the painting is a way of searching for the connections between all the pieces that don't fit. It is a reaction to the relentless and devastating disruption that follows too many crises, too many breakdowns, too much traveling the edge between transcendence and madness without finding a place to rest. It comes from being haunted and broken and starting over again and again. It comes from waiting and watching and trying to forget. It comes from the seeds germinating on my windowsill and the candles left burning in case someone comes home. It comes from the memories that sear themselves behind our eyelids and the insidious crackle of hope smoldering in the corner of the room.