Erica Sofer Bodwell

Summer Looks Like This

The oil and watercolor paintings in this show were made in the summer and fall of 2023 from plants and people within reach and being themselves—the artist sitting in meadows and fields, literally at eye level with the buzzing summer life found there. She arranged found aquatic plants from Lake Chocorua, backyard zinnias and nasturtiums, and downed branches of white pine into living collages on the studio floor, before painting them through all phases of their decomposition. The portraits are sparked by childhood photos or the artist looking in a mirror but don’t attempt a likeness—instead weaving the subject into painted collages or using watercolor to find the intense gaze and searing interiority hidden in decades-old family photos. This show asks the viewer to remember summer in the heart of winter, to remember who we used to be—did we pay attention? Are we paying attention now?