Priscilla Pontani
     Showing in the gallery at
     SMARMY'S
                  ("We provide the herb butter, you do the rest.")
        Milford, PA

By Constance Bandacoot

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Pleasantly attractive from a distance, at extreme close range the paintings become a gorgeously repulsive phantasmagoria. If these paintings were ever made into bathroom wall paper, a room so papered would either drive you totally mad or, paradoxically, cure you forever of the need for a high-fiber diet.

Each painting has intriguing layers of the same color varied by the hint of a brush stroke, or something that fell from the artist's hair. The homogeneous renderings allow for greater optical continuity that masks the violence depicted in the hidden layers.

                
                "My New Rash"

Unbeknownst to the artist, using an X-ACTO knife, I sliced off a sliver of the top paint layer from "My New Rash," a rather large sliver unfortunately, which was submitted to GvJ Labs for examination under its rented electron-microscope.

Analysis revealed a mélange of scenes, including the Greek god Pan and Dick Cheney hunting, recognizable old rock stars as sway-back satyrs with walkers attempting to cavort with woodland nymphs, and crashes during the Tour de France. Very poignant.