The Paintings of Leopi Nicola
It
is often said that a woman giving birth is a miracle of nature. Accepting
that this is true, then a woman whose profession is to assist in these births
is a witness to miracles on an almost daily basis. Having worked as a midwife
for many years, Leopi Nicola is one of these witnesses to miracles, and
as an artist, as well as a mother, she gives testimony to these miracles
in her work. And just as the miracle of birth cannot exist without love
her paintings are also expressions of love.
In these beautiful paintings we see the love of a mother for her child,
and of a child for her mother. We see the love of a man for a woman, and
of a woman for a man that leads to the creation of life. We see the love
of parents, and children within the warm embrace of the family, and we see
the love of the artist for her subjects in the sensitive handling of lines,
shapes and colors that create a world that is bathed in the warm golden
glow of human love.
There is a very human love in these paintings, but there is something more,
also. It is believed by some cultures that there is a spirit world, and
that in this world the beings who live there look much like us, but they
are blue in color. So, in these paintings we see not only the love of humans
for each other, but also the love of the spirit world for our world, and
for those of us who live in this world.
In “Gold Into Blue” we see a spirit woman entering our world
from within a field of sacred flame. We see this flame in many of the paintings,
but it is not a flame of destruction, it is the flame of creation. It is
the warm flame of two beings, a man and a woman, who come together to create
new life. In “Patriarch in Fire” we see a spirit man who has
entered our world from this fire of love. In “Madonna and Blue Man
in Creation”, the woman has taken on the golden glow of this flame,
and in doing so has fully entered the human realm, with the healthy complexion
of a mother giving birth, while her spirit husband bares her weight on his
blue body.
Within what may seem a restricted palette of oranges, yellows, reds and
blues Leopi Nicola creates a broad spectrum of emotional and expressive
colors. The interplay of these complimentary hues is like the interplay
of the yin and yang of Taoism. This may be seen most forcefully in “Matriarch
in Water”, where the embryonic twins within the woman seem like the
familiar symbol that represents the complimentary elements of life, the
yin and the yang. And in the world of Leopi Nicolas’ paintings, as
in Taoism, opposites like male and female, orange and blue, spirit and flesh,
can only attract, because they are not only interdependent, but they are
really one entity. There is no male without the female, there is no spirit
without the flesh. Flesh gives birth to spirit and spirit gives birth to
flesh in this world of everyday miracles that is the creation of Leopi Nicola.
LEOPI NICOLA
THE COMPASSIONATE FIGURE
By Mike Grady
My first encounter with Leopi’s artwork was a postcard announcement for her show at Turn of the Century Gallery in 2006. The image – ‘Young Venus Watching’ depicted a standing nude woman paddling a canoe. Her body was young and nubile and her innocent face confronted the viewer with no expression, but the eyes were wide and inquiring; naive and wise at the same instant. This painting turned out to be emblematic of all Leopi Nicola’s artwork. While her approach becomes more focused and clearly expressed with every new artwork, Leopi’s painting depict the human figure as a mythic expression of both innocence and sexual power. Her large scale images surround us and haunt us, with their emotionless, staring figures but also embrace us with their love and compassion.
Leopi’s themes often invoke a sense of ritual and of spiritual initiation. Her painting style, in which color (mostly shades of blue) stands in for a metaphysical imminence, is strongly physical and confident. Rather than taking an academic approach to the figure, she simplifies her forms and treats each figure as an expression of human essence. Her sensitive and adept use of the brush evokes a quiet sensuality that one finds curiously re-assuring. Leopi draws heavily on her own experience as a mother and as a mid-wife to tell us something important about the human experience. Her work fuses the sensuousness of the human form with a deep spiritual awareness. Her evocation of magic and ritual propels the work into a sense of the fantastic – wonderfully dream-like but always haunting in its sense of reality. Leopi Nicola’s paintings celebrate the ‘transcendent’ as they embrace the ‘imminent’.
These paintings are seductive as Young Venus – honest and direct but also deeply sensuous and wise. One is beguiled by the work – embraced by a sense of memory and spirit. We are inspired and enlivened. It is easy to recognize the consummate skill and elegance of the artist, but upon deeper reflection one is taken by the rarest of qualities in contemporary paintings – truth. The magic in Leopi Nicolas work comes from honesty and directness. She speaks to us of our own search for love and beauty and delivers statements that both confront us and set us free. The heart of Leopi’s artwork is the gift – a direct offering of benevolence and delight in simple human form.
“A Dream in Lapis and Saffron”
For Leopi
by Doug Cover
[1]
Within a golden dawn
night glows
a cerulean shade
in the face of a boy
holding in his lap
an azure ocelot cub.
[2]
A saffron goddess
brings forth life
from between her thighs
on the indigo bed
of her lover’s body
as a turquoise tide of dreams
surges from the source.
[3]
A sky blue pyramid of family
divides light of daybreak
from shade of dusk
when a crimson yellow flame
falls from the hand
of evening’s son.
[4]
Emerging from a softly blazing field
the cobalt moon woman
releases broad winged
azure butterflies
from her
fluttering sapphire fingers.
[5]
Copper rings his cool, watery brow
as, in his dance,
he leaps through fire
and from his lapis palm
emerge metallic halos of light.
[6]
“Cold, clear night,
aurora of morning
and warm sun
gleam from within our
faces, hands and flesh.
Our bodies naked and proud,
we look out at you
to tell our stories.
Can’t you hear our voices
as we sing?"
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