I Heard It Through The Grapevine

“Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear,” sings Marvin Gaye in his hit rendition. These drawings throw their trust into the negotiation between the known and the unknown. The brush moves quickly across the paper to capture what is in front of me and how I feel in real time. Through that process, a new thing is created; not my foot, or my idea of my foot, but something in between. My shoes stretch out and fly away and song lyrics become revolutionary invocations. When drawing a horse from memory, it sucks up how I am feeling like a sponge and says it back to me on the paper. The point of view bounces up and down as I move through the world.

Bio

Jo Ophardt was born in Phoenix, Arizona but raised a Buffalo Bills fan by their family- all hailing from western New York. They moved to Portland to pursue painting at The Maine College of Art & Design and found the New England attitude to be quite agreeable. Their practice draws from pop culture iconography and uses swift marks to capture fleeting moments. They are constantly asking “why is this a painting?” and other potentially illuminating but ultimately discouraging questions.