Miller Updegraff: A Fairy Story

Detail of A Fairy Story (2012) by Miller Updegraff
Acrylic, glitter and black mica on canvas
41 x 38 inches
Courtesy of Michael Benevento


It's time for another Spotlight post, this time featuring Miller Updegraff's A Fairy Story. In this painting, Updegraff explores the concept of ordering chaos through the act of art making. By setting form to subconscious fantasies and styling them upon the blank void of the canvas, the painter "imposes structure" upon shapeless potentiality.

Yet, in spite of attempts to enforce a delineation, irrationality persists in the very act of creation. Updegraff writes:

"No constellation of ideas or beliefs exists according to which the world may be confidently ordered."

Therefore, within this painting, the limitations of human attempts to intellectually or aesthetically encompass the wholeness of Being are indicated both by the unmarked emptiness underlying the image and by the dream-like vagueness of the image itself.

A Fairy Story is certainly an engaging work, thought-provoking. The glitter and black mica gives the image an effervescent sparkle that no photograph can effectively capture. So, come check it out in person.

We're looking forward to seeing you at TAM. :-)