Nostalgic Patriotism

Written by Gabriel Diego Delgado

As seen in the Summer 2017 edition of Contemporary Texas Magazine

Read online here: https://issuu.com/gdelgado2010/docs/contemporary_texas_magazine_summer_

Leslie Matiacio was the guest artist on display at Gallery 195 for the month of July 2017. Matiacio, an Art Teacher for NISD displayed what she describes as, “Impressionistic Pop Art”. A self-curated selection of patriotic car-culture driven impressionistic reminiscences was right in order for the Fourth of July celebrations in this small Hill Country town gallery.  

There was a consistent hit and miss underlying her exhibition. The successful compositions like the ? profile of the yellow grill and headlight, the front-on personality of the red cruiser and even the keynote speaker and the nationalistic nostalgias of the red Ford truck harbor just enough swatches of color, defining contour and illustrious chrome to entice all gearheads and small-town charmers alike.

When Matiacio paints, she says she often asks herself, “What is the least information I can show to give the viewer the impression of what I am painting?”

An active member of the Boerne Professional Artist association, Matiacio states, “I want my work to be engaging, nostalgic, and fun for the viewer.”

I must hand it to Matiacio though, sometimes you paint for your audience, sometimes you paint for yourself.

She knows exactly what she wants her artwork to do. With Boerne hosting numerous Hot Rod nights, the Key to the Hills Hot Rod Run, and the Texas Corvette Annual Open Car Show Matiacio might have a built-in audience for this kind of artwork.

Let me take a moment to discuss some aspects within some of these “Impressionistic Pop Art “painting.   In “Texas Truck”, a sizable 36” x 60’ acrylic on canvas, Matiacio illustrates a 70’s / 80’s -ish square fronted Ford Truck. A Silver-ish Blue paint job accents the decades old pick up. The left angled one-point perspective pushes the pristine bumper, headlights, and grill into the forefront of the picture plane. As an artist, she renders just enough detail for the viewer, pushing the image to the peripherals of realism. Broad strokes of varied tones of blue create the shadows that dance across the hood and cab; casted by the surrounding trees. Her simplistic style works for definition in the main subject of the painting. But, applying the same sensibility to the background nulls the painting. The blasé brown ground seems a bit flat while the five or six green tones in the back trees are too rudimentary to carefully balance the relationship of the truck to the environment.

I get it.... the truck is the main thing the artist wants us to see in the painting, while all the rest is subpar, but there has to be more attention paid the other elements in the painting. The background and road surface seem to me to be afterthoughts, unfinished in their nonchalant connection to the truck. If the pick-up is the main focus, the delivery is essential in impressionism – My thought…. Delete everything else, there is no need for a narrative of its surroundings. We are only concerned with glass, chrome, metal and angular reflections of the auto and how they define the contours and planes of the subject.

“Wine & Sunshine” is of similar criticisms. The painting seems flat, the brush strokes are mostly the same width; while most of the coveted impressionistic attention is paid to the wine barrels in the back of the truck bed. The painting works more like an underpainting or a studio study than a finalized piece.

However, “Chubby Chevy”, a 24” x 36” acrylic on canvas, is direct to my point. The up-close and personal composition erases any need for an activated background, because the car dominates. The artist chose to just paint the rest of the canvas out with flat washes which helps us ignore the background’s importance and allow us to enjoy the cruising. The orange underpainting that she uses throughout the full exhibition selections adds another level of radiate energy for this painting. It helps activate the chrome, adding additional dimension to the reflective quality of the chrome. I am surprised how effective this painting is due to the subdued palette and minimal tonal variations; but she is successful in the impressionistic portrayal of such horsepower.

Let’s switch ‘gears’ for a moment and take a look at the two smaller paintings that are stacked together on the wall arrangement: “Buckhorn Baths” and “Wildlife Museum”. This duo is not the typical nostalgic car-porn but something more interesting. In the same nostalgic mannerisms of the automobiles, Matiacio executes two small urban landscape paintings. These highway / roadside tourist signs are charming in their patinaed mid-century appeal. On clear sunny day we see the rustic qualities of these American Picker’s daydream. Hard edged curves and flowing delineations illustrates the hand painted fonts and stylized art of highway signs; a lost art in itself. I feel these two paintings are the underrepresented VIP’s of the selections. They hold all the wanted nostalgia mixed with impressionistic simplicity while giving us a rejuvenation of hipster wistfulness.

“Glorious Ford”, the main painting commemorating all that is American, sits proudly at the front door of the gallery, inviting all those in, to celebrate the jingoistic jubilee that is a city like Boerne’s charm. Flag…check, Old truck…check…Main Street…check….Yes, there is no ironic sarcastic blasphemous contexts that I can superimpose on such iconic imagery. It is too deliberate, not coded, and forevermore simplistically sincere.

For more of Leslie Matiacio’s artwork, visit https://lesliematiacio.weebly.com/