Ballard-based artist Kellie Talbot makes tightly composed paintings of the eccentric American past of the mid-20th century. She pictures rusted old neon signs seen in daylight (so unlit, fallow), and at close range, as if you were up in their air.
They’re signs of a certain shared history that has splintered; you used to be able to find them all over, from Ballard to Vegas, in places that have since gone their separate ways, aesthetically and economically speaking. What they’re advertising may be gone, but these are such pretty hulks. If the paintings are nostalgic, that’s mitigated by the fact that the signs are suggested rather than seen whole, cut into fragments and details.
