Dave Kinsey. Man from Topanga. Edition Size: 125. 17 x 20 inch Giclee on 330gsm 100% Archival Cotton Paper. The "complexities of our existence" become complex only after we examine them in a simple context or frame of view. Dave Kinsey's Man from Topanga is (obviously) a profile portrait of someone - good proportion, fine use of line, excellent detail - but it is also a marvelous example of how color can delineate emotional depth and even afford a thoughtful musing or two about those aforementioned complexities. The somber expression of the gentleman hints at a mood of ennui; he is "whole" and "transparent" at the same. The cigarette seems forgotten and the black descending vertical off-center from his face implies a casual disinterest in whatever he may be hearing. Not to suggest that Kinsey is being derivative, but here is a disciplined and imaginative style that prompts favorable comparison to the post-war German expressionists or the visceral (albeit less horrific) immediacy of Francis Bacon.
