A Review of P. K. Page's Painting, Woman's Room

Woman’s Room, an oil painting of her dressing room by P. K. Page

In P. K. Page’s painting, Woman’s Room, a viewer may find it hard to situate his or her eyes when concentrating on a certain image. Instead of merely portraying what the room is, the room in the painting is displayed by the three-way mirror. It arouses the question of where the painter stands inside or outside the room interrelated when she is painting, which characterizes the speaker’s dilemma of her location with the tapestry in Page’s poem “Arras.”

In the poem “Arras,” for example, the peacock-image is a process created by complicating the self of speaker from the personal self to the impersonal self. In this poem, the speaker claims that she is not only the “observer” who sees things surrounding her but also the “other” by whom is seen (Page, “Arras” 12). A reader may further notice that the tapestry in this poem will not be treated as the subject matter but turn out to be the part of the mystery of the speaker’s location, disclosing the problem of self as a person with his or her subjective view at a certain position. The subjective position thus relies on her uncertain location with the tapestry. The speaker intends to complicate her roles and then wavers between the positions of human “I” and the “eyes” on animal’s tail through which becomes gradually indistinct for opening up the new significance of the peacock-image between the personal “I” and the “eyes” on the peacock’s tail. Through the undetermined position of personal self, Page can never fix her eyes in one certain place since her position may shift as it simultaneously goes along with the sight of how she sees.

By a series of words in such a close relation with one another, Page is much inspired as she is able to see the association among objects, a way regarding how visual images work. Instead of displaying a formula painting, her painting, Woman’s Room indeed unfolds a great many objects throughout the mirrors, but the scene is depicted as it is dominated by three pieces of mirrors in connection. The central panel reflects the objects of various lotions and perfumes on the dressing table. Also, there are some clothes hanged on the clothes stand, which reveal a domestic and intimate scene inside a woman’s room. However, the left panel shows a bed room, a black table with a brown bottle of wine and some white papers upon. And a different angle of the corner in the room is emerged as it shows the woman’s personal working or study with papers on writing and reading. It is noteworthy that the room in the painting is refracted by the three-way mirror rather than mere representation of a woman’s room. The mirrors appear to be a creative space since they not only reflect the various stuffs but also refract different kinds of dimensions in the room. In the mirrors, these stuffs or objects may seem to be unrelated, but they are like the images through which Page directs in her poems. In the painting, the room is like a space produced by a variety of objects in the mirrors.

In Page’s painting, Woman’s Room, it is also noteworthy that the central panel reflects the right side of the objects of lotions and perfumes in full, while the right panel reveals its objects in part. The right panel renders us the partial objects of the central mirror, as if the objects in the right panel seemingly were extended by the central panel. Compared with the central one, the right panel shows the perfumes, lotions and the sink that look nearly incomplete for their colors appear to be vague and a bit tarnished; most of the jugs additionally are encapsulated by a jumble of confused white figures. The lateral view on the objects, extended by the front side of the objects, not only presents us a different perspective in seeing but directs us a scale of vision through the painter’s seeing. This scale of sight from the painter cannot be easily noticed by the visual organ because there is a sudden change of objects from the central panel to the right panel. The angle in sudden change yet brings the viewer a gap between two panels. Such a gap nonetheless connotes the poet’s vision that can hardly be captured by visual organ.

References:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/491525746800635986/
Page. P. K. “Arras.” The Hidden Room: Collected Poems. Vol. 1. Erin: Porcupine’s Quill, 1997. 46-47. Print.