The great mystery of art lies in the process by which an artist uses a medium — oil or acrylic paints, pen and ink, pencil — and distributes it on a surface, which could be canvas, panel or paper, and imbues the object depicted with such an aura of unimpeachable experiential thereness that it affects not merely the viewer's sensibility but the memory and the day itself. From carafes of wine in Dutch still-life paintings to Cezanne's apples to Warhol's soup cans, artists for hundreds of years have taken the reality of mundane artifacts and raised them a state of a supreme awareness that seems to run both directions.
I felt that way about the small painting of a chocolate glazed doughnut by Kevin Ford that was included in the group exhibition "Cops," that ran at Tops Gallery in January and February.
