Provenance
Acquired by American Legacy Fine Arts directly from the artist
Artist Statement
“I particularly enjoyed painting‘The Cabinet’ as an homage to the tradition of trompe l’oeil, or ‘fool the eye’ paintings. The genre is deeply rooted in the classical realist tradition and this piece is conceptually and technically true to those roots. The use of a cabinet has always been a favorite of artists because it is such a relatable and familiar object. But technically it serves as a recess or inner space in which to describe the three-dimensional effect required of a trompe l’oeil. In this case the spices in the composition are from my own kitchen, the pomegranates from a neighbor’s tree, and the fabric from an old sewing project…all a part of my life even if in some small ways. The bird is a male Red Headed Fody, native to Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean. He is included in the story not just to add life to the stillness, but as a dimension that is coming forward towards the viewer.”
—Mary Kay West
Exhibited
The Poetry of Still Life, American Legacy Fine Arts, Pasadena, California, April 22 – May 21, 2023
