September 9-15, 2004

artpicks

At Home

by Lori Hill

art

Shelley Spector watched artist Rebecca Westcott come in and paint the walls of her gallery at least four times in preparation for her new show, "Homemade." Westcott, says Spector, wanted to "set the mood." Westcott settled on a color called "sassafras," a light shade of yellowish-green. Such meticulous decision-making is but a small window into the young artist's process.

For the Spector show, Westcott painted designs on top of the sassafras, then on top of that are large sections of boards with other patterns, words, numbers, even recipes. It's what's painted on nearly life-size boards on top of that, though, that's the thrust of her work: portraits of friends, acquaintances, members of her community — her "crew," says Spector. These people — men in trucker hats, women in cowl-neck sweaters and cowboy boots — can safely be called hipsters, people you'd see at The Khyber or the Royal Tavern on any given night. Still, there's no pretension in Westcott's treatment of their eyes, their deadpan expressions. They're not cooler than thou; they're just people sitting on folding chairs or standing on a corner.

While she obviously enjoys painting these familiar faces, sometimes she veers from the circle-of-friends course. "It can get kind of heady to do people you know," she says. "You know they're going to see it."

So to mix it up, she'll piece together a work based on human features she sees in magazines — for a composite portrait of someone she might call part of her circle, if he or she existed.

Westcott first tried this type of installation at an ICA show and it's become "addictive," she says. It's a very personal style: An avid cook, she'll simply paint recipe instructions — for buttermilk squash soup, for coconut cake — in red letters on a white background; she'll paint dates and numbers significant to her life — birthdays, wedding anniversaries — on small boards and place them next to someone's portrait. And in what Spector calls a "rhythmic" move, images are often repeated, so that patterns in the background of one portrait will reappear on one of the walls.

For Westcott, it just makes sense, aesthetically and pragmatically: "It's a more comprehensive way of looking at pieces of work."

"Homemade," opening reception, Fri., Sept. 10, 6-9 p.m., exhibition through Oct. 2, Spector Gallery, 510 Bainbridge St., 215-238-0840.