bau 17

... through the wastelands of theology, psychology, art, literature and sex. Glittering residue of their interrupted dialogue surfaces, inevitably, in their painting and poetry.

Is there a theme? Only accidentally: the ineluctable combination of comedies and catastrophe that dogs our life. Of late Winchester has been much-intrigued by philosopher poet Anne Carson's notion of "the catastrophizing of communication," while Coughenour continues to find dubious inspiration in archetypal psychologist James Hillman's musings about "pathologized" images as a way of soul-making. These excursions into elevated arcana generally conclude in laughter, deep sighs, art or another martini.

Elizabeth Winchester is a painter and printer whose work portrays a life of disorientation and geographic dissonance. The paintings and prints include fragments of maps, newspapers, collage or found objects resulting in the creation of a personal topography. There are occasional intimations of aerial landscapes or singing abstract, rhythmic movements. Following the lure of detail, layers begin to unfold, veils lift, revealing increasingly disparate details of an idiosyncratic world. After a lifetime of hi-tech in Silicon Valley, Winchester attended the SF Art Institute and has lately been haunting the Woodstock School of Art printing studio. Her work has been shown in CA, FL, NY, CT and Denmark and is in collections in the US and UK.
www.elizabethwinchester.org

Jim Coughenour is a writer and cartoonist whose fiction, essays, reviews and cartoons have appeared in an alarming number of tiny magazines, gay newsweeklies, academic tomes and tawdry.

Elizabeth Winchester, Residence On Earth