Mercedes-Benz Financial Services

Harmony Padgett

One State of Content

2008, Oil on hand-carved wood, 48"w x 48"h

Contradiction is encouraged. Multiple interpretations are crucial. I want to complicate the simple intricacies of the human body. It’s fun to blur the line between what is hard and rough and what is soft and sensual. I try to take what we see when we look down after getting out of the shower and, using raw materials, reveal the glorious ambiguity that is possible. I portray all its parts; hair, scraped knees and knobby elbows, nipples, stubble, bruises. The traits and texture of the human form come to life through the flaws and grain in the personality of a piece of wood. Like alter egos, our bodies walk around under clothes everyday, the figure hidden, distorted in such a way that it is not always clear what we are seeing. This is the seduction of the imagination. I carve out beauty hidden within a very ordinary material and put something private and provocative on display in an abstractly beautiful way.

 

Harmony Padgett - One State of Content

Leave a Comment

A Daimler Company