“Summer Skin I” (2010)


“Summer Skin I” (2010)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
6 × 8 in., oil on panel
Coppola Collection

This was one of the first pieces I picked up from Barbara. There is an exceptional ambiguity about this composition. Is it inside, with a beam of sun interrupted by some shade; or outside, with someone else in the way? You want to stare and study, yet you want to turn away. Are we looking north or south? Or east or west, for that matter? You think you may understand the subject; but you might not. Provocative and evocative.

To me, it does what good art does: tells a story.

“Indigo Blue Moon” (2018)

“Indigo Blue Moon” (2018)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
10×10 in., oil on canvas
Coppola Collection

“Blue Moon” is one of the first paintings I got from Barbara. She had done one for me before and I asked her to re-interpret it in these deep tones.

My original “Blue Moon” is from 2013.

“Blue Moon” (2013)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
10×10 in., oil on canvas
Coppola Collection

 

“Maybe Next Time” (2018)

“Maybe Next Time” (2018)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
6×8 in., oil on cradled panel
Coppola Collection

Unrequited love… here the two players are both linked by their “heart line” and yet wholly separated and moving as yin-yang opposites.

Near the end of the “Firefly” series, Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion’s character) makes the blanket declaration that “All Love is Unrequited.”

In giving the title, I drew from three sources that all have a combination of melancholy and hopeless optimism.

There is a great and mournful old guitar piece called “Maybe The Next Time” (“Vielleicht Das Nachste Mal”) (1981) by Rainbow, as well as a 1991 ballad by Sue Medley titled “Maybe The Next Time.”

I hybridized these titles with a terrific musical number from “Cabaret” called “Maybe This Time” (which did not appear in the original 1966 musical, but was integrated into the stage play after its inclusion in the 1972 movie version; it was not written for the musical, it is a song that existed)… it’s Sally’s last desperate plea for a second (third, fourth…) chance before things turn dark and she self-destructs (again).

so… maybe next time

This gives me a trifecta of these stone pieces.

“Heartline” (2018)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
6×24 in., oil on 2 in. cradled panel
Coppola Collection

“Stone Circle” (2014)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
8×8 in., oil on cradled panel
Coppola Collection

“Seaclouds”

“Seaclouds” (2018)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
8×8 in., oil on panel
Coppola Collection

From the artist (2018):
a role reversal of bohemian green earth and terra verte in the sky surrounding the moon, zinc buff and unbleached titanium to make the rich cloud cream and a mix of everything with cerulean blue in the waves (detail, below)

From Joni Mitchell (1967):
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

From Troye Sivan (2015):
My youth, my youth is yours
Trippin’ on skies, sippin’ waterfalls

“Heartline”

“Heartline” (2018)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
6×24 in., oil on 2 in. cradled panel
Coppola Collection

Barbara writes: The striped stones are all from the coast of New England except for the small, heart-shaped one which hails from Florence. I’ve been waiting to put this together for a while.

Clever, I think, and an irresistible companion to the 2014 “Stone Circle” painting.

“Stone Circle” (2014)
by Barbara Kacicek (1957-)
8×8 in., oil on cradled panel
Coppola Collection