The World Will Turn

Selena Scott

Sometimes light bathes the young people in Selena Scott’s paintings, casting them with an optimistic glow. The painter holds the space between the past and the future, making room for both: not one without the other. She sets out to paint new subjects in an old medium, painting with respect, understanding, compassion – not one without the other. Painting is an act of care, the refinement of the oil paint, the redefinition, as the artist describes, of those portrayed.   

They're like the joyful melanges that young Brooklyn-based artist Madjeen Isaac paints, which see the city as a place of rejuvenation, pollinated with exuberant flowers and foliage. When Selena chooses an urban setting, the struggle of that environment is conveyed, with introspection and melancholy, but not defeat. When she chooses a natural setting, the composition will combine a sense of distances – the trees or water or horizon stretching out – as well as enclosure. Here nature is a place of healing and belonging, as well as a powerful place, imbued with force. The skill with which Selena renders textures, of clothes and hair for example, amplifies the intimacy of these portrayals.