Lyra Garcellano, "Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre"

Lyra Garcellano needed to bring herself out of a rut.  We can all relate to that.  Sometimes it just feels better to slosh around

Lyra Garcellano, "Nessum Dorma" and "Last Tango"

in self-pity.  It takes too much effort to rise above a bad patch.  You can’t imagine yourself  out of the shadows.

Lyra Garcellano, "Parabola"

Through her paintings, Lyra attempts to mirror these emotions.    She depicts her subjects as they lie immersed in the blues, floundering, helpless.  She paints in sepia, tones she has been using for most of her recent pieces.   Lyra fills her pieces with dainty details, soft folds on clothing here, windblown grass there.  She treads delicately on despair.

In the throes of despair

She also exhibits two large- scale charcoal drawings of subjects on a free fall.  These hang from way up on the gallery’s far wall.  At

Lyra Garcellano, "How Deep Is The Ocean, How High Is The Sky I and II"

the center of the space, she mounts an installation of a ladder that casts a looming shadow in white cement.   The first few of the ladder’s rungs stand broken, illustrating the difficult climb ahead.

Lyra Garcellano

Eventually, like Lyra, you expect her subjects to get a grip, get a move on, get going with life.  But for the meantime, what a wondrous way to wallow!

Old Pain by Lyra Garcellano runs from 9 to 30 September 2009 at Finale Art File, Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati.  Phone (632) 810-4071 or visit http://www.finaleartfile.com