After you’ve initially and pleasantly been overpowered by the beautiful color combinations and sensitive paint handling in these pieces, the subject matter begins to reveal itself.  These very intimate paintings were created by an artist primarily painting for her own pleasure; that is, without explicitly trying to engage or otherwise shape a larger cultural esthetic.  I see them as lovingly produced narratives like home movies, (albeit captured as still images) that were intended for a small audience. Having said that, these quietly beautiful paintings nevertheless are able to invoke, indeed celebrate, the unique and powerful experience that only painting is capable of.

Patricia Broderick, Tibor de Nagy Gallery

What distinguishes this work from a school of the personal reading are their whimsically abstract qualities.  Yes it’s evident that the images are derived from the artist’s private life.  But it is how

Patricia Broderick, Tibor de Nagy Gallery

they are painted that makes them universal.  In other words, whether you know what the narratives driving these paintings are is not important; Broderick authentically captures something contradictory, what I call the ‘Universally Personal’.  I say authentic because these pieces do not come off as preconceived for any particular agenda.  They’ve come about naturally, creating windows into these private, poetic little worlds that are heartfelt but also just a bit removed.  While the subject matter is taken from Patricia Broderick’s personal life, her content is perhaps understood as melding this into a visual statement that is open to everyone.

Patricia Broderick, Tibor de Nagy Gallery