Amy Elkins Blog

Home•sick
Dec 12, 2009 - Feb 21, 2010
OPENS Dec 12th 4pm-7pm
Carnegie Art Museum

I will be introducing a few of the artists a day, throughout the week.
Today: Jeff Beck, Livia Corona and Brian Paumier.


c. Jeff Beck

"Home looks like a rat maze to me. Everybody’s in a grid here, but it’s what I know. I’m sick of it, I leave, and then I miss it. I paint these neighborhoods that I’ve known my whole life. It’s their familiarity that relates to the theme of homesickness.

This will be a continuation of a series I’ve worked on for the last few years of the suburbs— the local Southern California suburban housing track. The response that I’ve gotten from most people that have seen [the work] is familiarity. Everyone thinks—if they’ve grown up in Southern California—that it’s a painting of the neighborhood they grew up in. People tell me: I know where that is. Most of the time, it’s not. It’s kind of funny; it’s so homogenous here that everyone has the same feeling for it." - jb


c. Livia Corona


"One can define home not by the mere construction of a dwelling, but as the combination of cultural, ecological, academic, architectural and social environments that delineate areas of growth for living creatures.

“Two Million Homes for Mexico" documents the massive low-income housing projects currently spreading through remote agrarian territory in Mexico. It explores multiple definitions of home, from the perspectives of real estate developers to the young resident families. The project examines the surge and effects of these developments, focusing on their role in the ongoing transformation of the cultural and ecological landscape in Mexico." - lc



c. Brian Paumier

"I'm homesick for my memories. I hang out with my grandmother and she can’t do the things that she used to do: I want to play cards with her until three in the morning, I want to go to the bakery and buy bread with her, but she can’t do that any more. I’m sad when things aren’t what they used to be. When things are changing and not remembered enough, I feel more homesick for the past.

The images that I’m presenting are the memories of my home in both California and Ohio, and of my grandmother. I’m showing things that may not be around anymore and things that might disappear." - bp