Fairy Tale Women Come Alive in Laser-Cut Oil Paintings

The female figure finds its forms in beauty, nature, and decay, in the work of Redd Walitzki.

by Anya Tchoupakov

October 23, 2015, 5:40pm

Exquisite Corpse Installation. All images courtesy the artist

Even among centuries-established mediums, new methods are being discovered and used for the purposes of artmaking. Seattle-based artist Redd Walitzki, for example, laser-cuts oil paintings, resulting in images at once crisp as they are sprawling with imagination. Her latest work is on display through November 7 at the Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco. The works in the new series, Exquisite Corpse, are described as “rooted in the transformation of decay into new life. These paintings explore the relationship between entropy and new growth; they pull at the petal edges of our fascination with death and the tragic muse. ”

The series is in the same style of Walitzki’s earlier work, which is almost exclusively “sensual portraits of ethereal yet slightly-feral, fairytale women.” She is influenced by old-world rococo and glamor, “both the lure of fleeting modern day high fashion glamor… as well as the original meaning of the term glamor, which in ancient times referred to illusory shapeshifting used by supernatural beings to perilously enchant hapless humans.” The resulting cut canvases light up with fluid yet precise forms. They are twisted and gorgeous, continuing the long tradition of painting and celebrating the medium—and its muses.

See more of her work below: