Nathan Spoor. Migration. Edition Size: 40. 17 x 20 inch Glclee on 330gsm 100% archival cotton rag paper. $45. There is now this neutral ground in painting and contemporary illustration where elements of fantasy are colored with an emotional temper that seems neither happy nor sad to a beguiled viewer. The two key visuals in this piece by Nathan Spoor are dimensional opposites. We have an elevated island with towers and turrets in the background; on a promontory (or another island?) slightly more visible in the foreground is the figure of a child holding a balloon. It would be tempting to accept all of this as simply a charming variation on certain familiar themes tackled by a host of other painters in the past (Wyeth's "Christina's World, for instance), but Spoor has added a third motif - an umbrella framed within one of the empty spires - which arrests our attention and sends us back to contemplative musings.
