Embracing the Chaos: artworks selected by Debra Marcoux

Rather than looking to resist the noise of daily life, this month I’m embracing the chaos. The works in this selection feel charged and dynamic. They build into something closer to a vibration than a resolution. In Josette Urso’s paintings, that energy comes from her surroundings. She paints to capture action rather than description, then gets lost in the paint itself, the surface becoming a mapping of its own making. In Mary Didoardo’s work, looping lines accumulate until distinctions dissolve and the surface hums with movement. Jacquelyn Strycker builds through pattern layered over pattern, forming knitted surfaces that gather into dense patchworks. In Peter Stephens’ paintings, precise hand-painted lines overlap and entwine, activating the surface as colors shift with proximity. Cynthia Rojas’s vibrant color and layered forms create spaces that move between surface and depth, inviting the eye to keep moving rather than settle.