Deborah Brown
Born 1955, Walnut Creek, CA, lives and works in New York, NY
Audrey Double Portrait I, 2001, oil on canvas, 48” x 65”, Lent by the Artist
Deborah Brown explores the natural world in her paintings to combine her interests in history, science, culture, and education. Brown’s experience walking dogs as a volunteer at the Humane Society of New York inspired her series Shelter Dogs and Pound Portraits. She paints the dogs from Polaroid portraits, taken from above at skewed angles to create a dynamic and unexpected composition. The artist emphasizes their isolation and emotional longing by the space that encompasses them, even though the dogs often find families. At first, Brown attempted to “represent them in a clinical, dispassionate manner, like specimens without context.” But removed from their shelter environment as silhouetted shapes on a solid background they become heroic portraits, emphasizing the psychological depth of dogs, and the mannerisms inherent to each personality. These portraits embody Brown’s fondness for animals and, in turn, their fondness for and devotion to us.
Brown’s earlier series, Underwater, explores the relationship between animals, machines, and nature. She focuses on the beauty and vulnerability of the underwater ecosystem in Calypso, a large-scale canvas inspired by photographs of deep-sea scientific exploration and Jacques Cousteau’s famed ship by the same name. Her painting maps the depth of the unconscious which is, like the underworld she depicts, murky and clouded and slightly beyond the scope of full recognition.
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