Vielmetter Los Angeles is pleased to present our second online exhibition during this unprecedented and challenging time. “Words of Encouragement” is a series of new works by Esther Pearl Watson painted while in quarantine.

Watson created this series of ten paintings exclusively for online presentation. Through these new works, Watson explores the mental constructs she struggles with during the uncertainty of this global pandemic. Each of the paintings depicts what Watson calls “butterfly saucers” with tiny clipped-wings, aluminum foil, and found mirrors. Watson ruminates on the tattered way we build resilience, represented by clunky space ships that are grounded, stuck, and unable to launch just yet. Watson’s titles are sourced from sidewalk chalk writings, posters, and high school yearbooks which point toward naive optimism. Extending the sensibility of her memory paintings, Watson’s “Words of Encouragement” offer respite from the barrage of obstacles we are all currently facing. Phrases such as “It’s going to be awesome to hug again” and “Don’t count the days, make the days count,” float above scenes of children making paper dolls, vast skies, and friendly cows, reminding us we are all in this together and we will get through this difficult time.

Esther Pearl Watson (b. 1973) lives and works in Los Angeles, she received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts. Her paintings have been exhibited, amongst others, at Concord Center for the Visual Arts, Concord, MA, Contemporary Art Museum of Plainview, Plainview, TX, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Parkside, WI, Maureen Paley Gallery in London, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. In 2013 she was Artist-in-Residence at Grafikiens Hus, Mariefred, Sweden. Her award-winning comic “Unlovable” is published in Bust Magazine and with Fantagraphics. She has published Blood Lady Commandos on Vice online and Welcome to Crapland on Adult Swim online. She has taught at Oxbow Artist Residency, the Lexicon of Sexicana at Columbia College in Chicago, and is currently teaching at ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, California.