Since moving to
the Beach from New York ten years ago, Linda Faneuf has concentrated her artistic energy
on the Beach’s nearly forgotten elderly population. Her subjects are mostly women -
women eating, women promenading, women sitting - and they’re often alone. Much of her
work explores physical vanity among these women, who teeter on high heels despite swollen
ankles or lug heavy tote bags in the name of fashion. "They’re struggling to
move but they’re worried about their attire and making sure their hair is
perfect," Faneuf says.
Her take on this obsession can be saddening,
other times celebratory, occasionally very witty. Always, though, her work captures the
struggle of the elderly to maintain their dignity in a city that has so readily rejected
its forebears. "Some of the women see the paintings and I think they’re amazed
that someone noticed them," Faneuf says. Above all, her work documents a population
that, sadly, is disappearing from the neighborhood faster than her paint can dry. |
