Motifs of Childhood: Art by Jeannie Polisuk
Triangulation, oil and wax on panel
Featured artist Jeannie Polisuk works in painting and sculpture, creating sometimes cute, sometimes eerie works with the motifs of childhood. Stuffed bunnies in unlikely situations and poses abound in her painting gallery, while the artist’s subdued colour choices project an interesting and odd mood.
Holding Pattern, oil on canvas
Jeannie’s oil paintings are interesting in that they tend to use children’s toys – stuffed rabbits, bears and other plush animals – as stand-ins for real children. Sometimes the artist even goes so far as to replace the heads of apparently human figures with those of plush animals, or vice versa. The resulting paintings, also using a somewhat muddy colour scheme and a drippy, loose painting style, evoke feelings of nostalgia blended evenly with unease. The deep colours and mysterious, sometimes eerie subjects are reminiscent of the illustrations of Laurey Foulkes.
The front page of Jeannie's website
Jeannie also brings the stuffed animal motif into her sculptural and installation work. Placing stuffed toys in glass boxes, or constructing a giant toy bunny in papier mache, the artist creates a looming eeriness where one might not expect it.
