Broyles First Friday in Planet

Andrea Broyles’ subconscious

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

By Kate Balog

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-In Jackson, three weeks will pass with minimal activity in the art world and then the first Friday of the month arrives and it’s suddenly party time. This Friday is no exception, with artist reception parties scheduled at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary and Muse Gallery.

“I have a memory. Not really a memory, but a memory of a memory that I fell into a well when I was little and almost drowned. My parents denied this ever happened, of course. But I remember the silence and falling into the green water.” One would think this statement came from a 21-year-old yoga practitioner listening to the Thievery Corporation, but, in fact, its speaker was a slender, tanned, blonde Jackson mother of three, clad in faded jeans and expensive boots. Artist Andrea Broyles used this scene from her subconscious to inspire her painting “The Well,” a composition of three faceless, undulating figures swirled in green ribbons.

Broyles’ appearance, statements, and artwork are slightly incongruous. She is private and reserved, but also funny and dark. Her 2006 diagnosis with thyroid cancer may have contributed to her fascination with mortality. She worked on a series of bullets using mixed media on paper after hearing the cure for her type of cancer was said to be “like a silver bullet.”

“Common themes I explore are loneliness, relationships, gravity, aging and small shapes found in nature. … The idea of falling or of being disconnected from earth has always captivated me,” Broyles said. She is also captivated by the figure and is inspired by Renaissance artists and 20th century figurative artists, Manuel Neri and Larry Rivers. Broyles tends to experiment with different materials as she does with themes.

She has used all type of media - sculpture (resin, clay, plaster and bronze), oil paints, and mixed media with found objects. She recently explored the concept of shadows in charcoal and white gesso but found “the shadow started to look like a grave or coffin. I didn’t want it to be so depressing and dark, so I stopped and started another one playing with perspective and a ghostly figure. I wanted to convey a feeling of aloneness and simplicity,” she explained.

Sometimes Broyles paints faces and sometimes not, depending on the kind of emotion she wants her work to portray. Faces directly reflect emotion and occasionally she prefers a vague sense of emotion to emit from the figure and the bodily expression.
“I Ask for a Word” features an elongated, faceless man with mini drawers containing found objects constructed at the bottom of the painting. “Self Portrait,” on the other hand, has a distinct, haunting, green face with no neck and a figure swaddled in a red coat. Broyles’ work also has a playful side. For example, her wood painting/sculpture of a plump woman whose body and head are wrapped in towels is an amusing rendition of the Venus Di Milo.

Trained in sculpture at University of Texas, Broyles later found herself attracted to the simplicity of materials in painting. “I didn’t have the resources to set up a studio for sculpture,” she explains. She recently worked on a study in small scale combining a wood panel background and layers of wax, oil paint and sculptural elements such as upholstery finishing nails.

Broyles has always been a professional artist, but took time off after having kids. She and her husband, screenwriter and author William Broyles, have lived in Jackson on and off for 10 years, but this show is actually her first one-woman show in Jackson. Broyles acknowledges in her new book, “The Gathering,” that she hasn’t followed the rules of being an artist. Instead, she got married, had children, never pursued an MFA, and moved to Jackson instead of a major art center. Nevertheless, she finds satisfaction in her creative journey, professional recognition, and even struggle in her work.
Her book will be available on Friday for purchase. Broyles will attend for book signings, and DJ Howler will spin. The artist’s reception runs 5:30 to 7 pm on Friday at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, 130 South Jackson Street.