Posted on: Sunday, December 10, 2000 Painter's work provocative, probing By Virginia Wageman Advertiser Art Critic Painter Sally French currently has two shows in Honolulu, one at the Contemporary Museum’s tasteful venue at First Hawaiian Center and the other at gutsy Salon 5. Both exhibitions are presented in fulfillment of her State Foundation on Culture and the Arts 2000 Individual Artist Fellowship. Primarily concerned with aging - in particular, female aging - French’s works attack head-on the terrors of getting old. In her world, there are no pretty cover-ups, no face lifts or hormone replacement therapies. She wants to feel it all, to sweat out life’s indignities and profit by them. She writes: "This body of work is about the psychic state of change, the netherworld, the space in between motivation and hesitation . . . where imbalance forces the old to roll over into the new." French’s works are also about the perils and confusion of modern society: children with guns, people with too much money, rampant consumerism that values only the new. All of these themes are presented utilizing cartoon characters - primarily Olive Oyl and Pikachu - as well as a windup toy duck and images of doll-like babies. An autobiographical painter, French is herself the powerful Olive Oyl and the somewhat battered toy duck, while Pikachu and the babies might be her own kids. Lurking behind it all, one suspects, is the hypnotic Jigglypuff, the Pokemon character who lulls everyone asleep and then draws all over them with her magic marker. French’s deft images might be Jigglypuff at work, appending an erect penis to sweet little Pikachu or encircling Olive Oyl with floating fried ova. French’s canvases are thickly layered, with one coat after another of alkyd (a shiny synthetic resin) as well as photocopy transfers, words and drawings in pencil and oilstick, beeswax, latex and spray paints and objects like postage stamps. These multiple layers, with scraping, scratching and dripping, pile up meanings, very often obscuring an idea so that we have to search hard for it. The ultimate example is a work at the First Hawaiian Center titled "The Incredible Shrinking Woman." Here a drawing of the windup duck leaping with gusto into the picture plane (with the words "the incredible shrinking woman is back") has been tacked over an old painting, only the edges of which (with the words "roll it over, lover, it’s over") can be seen. French is a provocative artist who pulls no punches. Many of her images are shocking, their shock value loosely veiled by the cartoon depictions or the seemingly innocent babies. Her aim is to jolt us, to awaken our senses so that we, along with her, will not just roll over and die, as it were. The exhibition at Salon 5, titled "XXXtreme Sally French," includes works considered too raunchy for the very public bank space at First Hawaiian Center. Among these is an installation, "Love Play," that was inspired by the massacre at Columbine High. Here a pile of old toy guns becomes a shrine to angelic babies, stressing the tragic dichotomy between seemingly innocent children and what might be perceived as equally harmless playthings. French, who was born and raised in California, lives in Kalaheo, Kaua‘i, and is an active participant in that island’s lively art scene. A well-produced catalog that includes work from both shows, with a critical essay by artist Lynda Hess, is available at Salon 5. View Honolulu Advertiser Article