Ornament (Little Blue Guitar)

This drawing by T.L. Solien is characteristic of his ornament subjects from the 1990s. Resembling an elaborate Rococo-style hanging lamp, the fantasy object is composed of various circles, dots, arabesques, and other linear forms surrounding and superimposed on a large, central tear-drop shape. A small dark blue guitar rests inside the tear-drop. There is a sense of motion in the drawing, as if the lamp was swinging in place. Painted in a limited palette of red, blue, tan, white and black, the drawing is highly layered and textured, its surface worked and re-worked, leaving various pentimenti (evidence of earlier under painting or drawing) and an appearance of age. Formally complex and visually compelling, its meaning remains elusive, but may represent an ornamental object Solien selected from an Old Master painting to study and reprise.