1975
NOAH DAVIS
NOAH DAVIS, 2013
The earthen pool is lined with umber bodies. Frozen headlong, a boy is captured middive into a turquoise pool, his fellow swimmers similarly caught in stillness. The scene is fuzzily painted - an artificially shallow depth of field, this moment focused upon the diving figure while blurring the other poolgoers. Davis’ control over his palette is reminiscent of the functioning of memory — capturing and recording certain details or foci, but never quite managing to condense into the moment it originally was. The result is a decidedly analogue effect, a faded postcard from a resort long passed by. Davis drew from quotidian scenes like these often, but it is their very mundanity that in turn infuses them with both livelihood and meaning. He painted everyday magic, permutating his subjects from the mediocre into a sun-slick fantasy.