Alexis Trice Paints a Wild-Eye and Feral Chosen Family
In Alexis Trice’s dreamy worlds, ethereal looking fish, hounds, shells, and clouds mingle and sparkle like jewels in a crepuscular haze. It’s in a hypnogogic state (where dreams and reality interweave) that they really spring to life: swimming, prancing, basking, and even weeping. Like sand passed through our fingers, though, their seemingly solid forms vanish under shifting tides of consciousness, should we wake too suddenly. Yet as our pillows come back into focus, we know such creatures exist because of the shimmering trails they leave behind. Traces of an enigmatic-yet-familiar presence, resounding like the deep whisper of the sea, or feral howl of the woods. Deep down, we all recognize this voice, this essence, but our human minds tend to overcomplicate. Fortunately, through her emotional symbolism, Trice helps us reconcile such insights.
The question of what makes one attuned to subconscious wilderness’ such as these, is really a matter of where they invest the senses—not only considering the sights, sounds, and tastes of an environment, but also one’s visceral impression of them. What we reckon of Trice is that having resided in urban New York City all her life has only deepened her appreciation, fascination, and desire to surround herself with the natural world. “Being a city dweller, I believe the scarcity of plants and animals in my environment has made me recognize their critical importance. Especially the ocean—surrounding the island I occupy—being a harbinger of life,” she says. “As a child, some of my greatest memories are forever imprinted in me by the sea. Still now, I pine for those few months every year when you can become one with the salt and the sand. The magical beaches of Long Island and Jacob Riis where I swam, sunbathed, fished, and even witnessed bioluminescence in the shallows. Observing clouds shapeshift with color in the sky, and the sun glinting on the ocean waves as they crest, makes me want the day to never end. I try to capture those ephemeral moments in my work, that color my world.”
She didn’t grow up in a particularly creative household, therefore her voyage of navigating an art career has been a mostly independent one. From a young age, she felt a deep urge to channel the fantastical images coiling within her imagination, and quickly became obsessed with painting (particularly flowy oils). Eventually, she attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, where she earned her BFA. This training helped her establish fundamental painting techniques, after which she returned to self-guided learning and discipline. Over the following years, her relationship with painting calcified, like pearls, into something distinctly her own.
Since Trice aims to capture nature’s mystique, we don’t find human resemblance in her work—that would be too obvious. Instead, she wants us to experience her concepts through subtler, more cryptic narratives. This allows for an additional dimension of interaction between painting and viewer, beckoning us to probe beneath the cerebral surface, to glean a language which transcends time and form. “My love and fascination with animals, natural history, and science plays a role in my obsessive depiction of certain creatures that continue to make appearances in my work. Some are mysterious, like the eel, some transient, like the fish, and the ever-present hound,” she explains—adding, “I also have always grown up with dogs, they will always be a part of my life. I find them to be a unique conduit between animal and human, one that gives voice and bridges the gap between the species. Their faces also lend to expressions we can grasp more easily, and we are drawn to form bonds.”
Trice’s raw, oozing scenes are met with stark symbolic elements—deliberate choices that make for a satisfying psychological combo. Her latest body of work, for instance, explores the transference of energy, on an emotional and molecular level. This is directly portrayed through the rippling, flowing, and splashing qualities of water, which in turn represent various feelings like joy, fear, ecstasy, anguish. All the tears we hide within us, finally escaped through the floodgates. One such painting, “At the Brim,” shows a silky canine risen from a swish of sea water. Tears stream from its glinting eye, forming a collective pool that releases bubbles of trapped emotion. Even the clouds above—wispy birdlike entities—seem to be in unison with this saturated moment, drifting in a state of compassion. Somehow, the event holds a feeling both fleeting and timeless, as if this creature is a ubiquitous mascot for all the sensitive beings in the world, giving us permission to cry. Certainly, it is a painting whose sum is greater than its parts.
WATER, PRECIPITATION, AND WEATHER GO HAND IN HAND WITH EMOTION … THE SALT FROM THE SEA AND THE SALT IN OUR BODIES; THE WATER IN OUR ATMOSPHERE, OUR CELLS, OUR VEINS; THE ENDLESS, CRUCIAL CIRCUIT OF EVAPORATION AND CONDENSATION …”
“Water, precipitation, and weather go hand in hand with emotion,” Trice elaborates. “The salt from the sea and the salt in our bodies; the water in our atmosphere, our cells, our veins; the endless, crucial circuit of evaporation and condensation …” she continues. Being that we are made up of more than fifty percent water, and the wombs from which we emerge are like personal aquariums, essentially, it seems only natural to view the ocean as a pertinent extension of ourselves. “The sea is a fecund, bountiful provider of life. The genesis. Fertility, fluids, transitory nature. Our sensuality, one’s life force—something we all hold so close …”
Candles are another recurring symbol in Trice’s work, speaking to the flickering movement of time. “They are flashes of the future, burning hope, sometimes masked as if a figment of the imagination, as well as the visual passage of time melting away,” she says. Since her paintings are ultimately about transient states of emotion—that which can’t be held—it makes sense that she would use the powerful, evasive elements of fire and water to portray such phenomenon. The metaphors for transformation don’t end there: We also see lots of shiny pearls, flowing fountains, and provocative shells glistening midair—and oh! the sparkles and shimmers they bring!
BEING A CITY DWELLER, I BELIEVE THE SCARCITY OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS IN MY ENVIRONMENT HAS MADE ME RECOGNIZE THEIR CRITICAL IMPORTANCE.”
To achieve her magical looking effects, Trice uses a process that involves several stages. Usually working with oils on panel, canvas, or linen, she employs an Old Masters technique: beginning with an imprimatura (an initial thin layer of color) and then a grisaille layer (a monochrome underpainting), eventually developing layers of color through multiple glazes. “Building the desirable layers is a delicate and time-consuming process but the results are like no other,” she says. Her overall approach to art making is also achieved through a careful balancing act, in which she divides her time between stints of brainstorming and introspection, then sketching, and finally, the execution stage. This allows a break from the physical demands of painting, in which she will generally work on several pieces at once, rotating each between the various
stages. “My sketches are admittedly very rough and loose, but from time to time I will make a miniature, fully rendered study of a painting before moving forward, especially if it is large,” she explains. This step is helpful in visualizing harmonious color schemes and working out troublesome areas. She prefers a more hands on approach when conceptualizing and rendering her subjects (versus the use of digital means), which probably lends itself to the alchemical vibes she achieves. “I am a very analog painter, if I can reference an object from life, I will, if not, a smattering of books and photographs will have to suffice. Most subjects I have painted many times to the point I need little reference, and I enjoy the freedom of my mind filling in the grey areas. I also adore little animal figurines, they are a bit of an obsession of mine, and fun to paint from,” says Trice.
Lately, she’s been relishing a newfound obsession with ceramics, discovering that intermittently working with clay and other materials satisfies her itch for more tactile modes of expression. In this light, she’s been bringing her painted expressions into the three-dimensional realm. Creatures like large, iridescent fish curled in fantastical postures which, not surprisingly, serve as vessels for taper candles. Once lit they emanate a heavenly light that cascades across their environment, much like the occurrences found in her paintings. Likewise, the literal dance of light and shadow—obscuring and highlighting different parts of the object below—helps her to imagine her beings living on canvas in new ways. It’s a full-circle revelation. “As of late I have been drawn to conveying a feeling, environment, and emotion rather than a specific realistic animal or landscape. Perhaps working with clay will help me achieve the abstracted, intangible world I see in my mind,” says Trice. Fueled by such possibilities, she is already busy at work on a whole new series which will include paintings and installations of her ceramics, based on more loosely rendered creatures. Through these newer manifestations, we can imagine that her saga into the ethereal continues … and have me mentioned anything about shimmers and sparkles yet? Certainly, we can expect a decent amount of those thrown in the mix.*
This article originally appeared in Hi-Fructose 76 which is available in print here.
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