STEPHANIE REW
Staff Writer
Plato once described humans — and, on a grander scale, society — as being comprised of distinct parts working toward one harmonious whole. We are constantly making both conscious and unconscious decisions, having to differentiate between contrary forces in our souls (and ultimately the world) in order to achieve the balance we naturally tend to seek. It is through contrast that we find clarity, and through individuals that we find unity.
Artist Todd Hebert portrays this heady holistic perspective using more tangible means than ancient philosophy. Hebert’s tool of choice is basic acrylic stretched over a wood canvas entitled “Dew, Bottle” (2005). Currently on exhibit at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum in Malibu, Calif., Hebert’s work is one of many pieces in the contemporary California art display that is worth more than just a passing glance.
At close range, the rather plain painting looks like a blurred photograph— meaningless and almost painful to view for a long time due to its obfuscated images. But with taking few slow, calculated steps backward, Hebert’s vision gradually becomes more apparent, and the proverbial “big picture” starts to appear. It is almost as if you are looking through a telescope — only in reverse.
“Dew, Bottle” is a serene mélange of fresh earth tones. Crisp blues, warm yellows and browns contrast with one another in a sort of misty light; the kind that illuminates early morning hours. The scene is simplistic: A wood deck against a fairly typical California mountain landscape. In the center of the panorama is a bottle of water, propped casually atop the deck rail— as if someone left it there and then forgot about it. The prominence of such a mundane object might seem odd. But the bottle’s sharp details and overall clarity contrast with the blur of the landscape, indicating Hebert had a larger purpose in mind when he placed it as the piece’s focal point.
Perhaps Hebert is playing a modern-day Plato. Ordinary things in life, represented here by a water bottle, are often either ignored or amplified. Sometimes we do not see the small things that make up our world, or even ourselves. Other times we see them all too clearly and obsess over them so much that we lose sight of the bigger picture and fail to recognize that everything (and everyone) has both an individual purpose and a significant role to play in our universal life. Hebert seems to be extending this philosophy to the environmental movement by calling attention to the objects we see as dismissible but actually disruptive to the natural harmony of the world in which we live. Or perhaps “Dew, Bottle” is just a pleasant, serene painting simply intended to increase the beauty and harmony of the wall which it adorns.
11-26-2007
