Memories in charcoal and chalk
"Detached Attachment'' (charcoal and chalk pastel), by LESLEY COHEN, in her "Presence and Absence'' show at the Bromfield Gallery, Boston, through May 31.
The gallery notes say:
"It's been proven: the more you remember something -- from memory that is -- the less accurate that memory becomes.''
In the show, Ms. Cohen explores her interpretations of childhood memories. She says:
"Thinking about them for years or decades has changed my memory of them and has maybe even changed the significance of the events themselves.''
Her drawings, the gallery says, "conceal these ambiguous incidents in an abstract vocabulary of time and space, exposing while still protecting these memories.''
Dripping with the past
"Silent Serenade'' (charcoal and chalk pastel), by LESLEY COHEN, in her "Presence and Absence'' show, April 29-May 31, at the Bromfield Galllery, Boston. She explores memories of childhood in her work.
It's curious how some of those memories, especially the bad ones, get stronger as one goes deeper into old age. I think of this as I look across from the patio here in Los Angeles to a yellow, parched, steep hillside with $2 million houses teetering at the top and flocks of gray parrots swooping in on palms with excessive force.
My memories of New England are usually of wet and cold, as it was here in LA of all places yesterday. So the line from the "The Lady Is Tramp,'' by Rodgers and Hart, can be accurate briefly:
Hates California, it's cold and it's damp.
That's why the lady is a tramp.
-- Robert Whitcomb