Found on Flickr: In Extasis by Tim Lowly

In Extasis, acrylic on panel, 2002 by Tim Lowly. Click image to view source.
In Extasis, acrylic on panel, 2002 by Tim Lowly. Click image to view source.

Once again, I celebrate Flickr as a showcase for emerging and established artists alike, in all visual media. This wonderful painting by Tim Lowly (his website is here) is accompanied by a description written by Karen Halvorsen-Screck in 2002. You can read the full essay here, but this is my favorite part:

In Ekstasis, for instance, seems to reveal one of Temma's fleeting expressions of happiness, or what appears to be happiness. I know that she is cortically blind, yet here I see her seeing something above and beyond me and my ken. In fact, she appears to be gazing at radiance, or releasing a radiance within. It is impossible to know for sure, and much of my response to In Ekstasis depends on my emotional perspective in the moment of looking.

I got the same feeling looking at this image, the feeling that I was seeing someone seeing something that I don't see. It reminds me of that fundamental paradox of portraiture, that the inanimate image of the subject is a reflection of my own act of seeing.

Tim Lowly is represented by Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Culver City, California.

See what else I've Found on Flickr.

This post is part of NaBloPoMo for July 2009.