Stuart Hodges Riordan, Tallahassee Artist

Looking into the water, Stuart Hodges Riordan (c.1950-April 25, 2022) 

What do you see when you look at this image of a Stuart Riordan painting?  I see a highly stylized dramatic image of a muscular woman in a billowing white gown, enveloping her, richly textured, in a classic Narcissistic pose. But who is she seeing in the mirror? The bright blue water holds the image of a child with floating letters that the strong figure seems to be deciphering. The strange bird at her back holds the key. The key to what? Not sure. Perhaps her younger self, some hidden sense of self? 

Is this Stuart Riordan's re-creation of
 Lizzy Borden, the 19th-century axe murderer,
eventually acquitted of murdering her parents? Is
this powerful woman seeking revenge, about to kill
someone, perhaps her own demons? 

I usually discover artists on internet art sites or through postings of friends on social media.  Then, my curiosity aroused, I google their names, do some research, study the images. I'm especially drawn to the art of women and African Americans whose works are hidden in the shadows of the Western canon.

This Tallahassee artist comes through my sister Andy, who is a friend of the artist's sister Sally. Sally's become my dear friend too. But I never met Stuart, whom I am getting to know through some of her published paintings. She died recently and Andy sent me her obituary. I was moved to dig a little deeper. 

I must say her paintings fascinate me, and confuse me. I'm not sure what I'm looking at. I see strong women, tough, in various poses, but I'm not sure what to make of them. There are elements of Renaissance splendor, in the intricate folds and textures of her dresses, "exquisitely sumptuous...a sense of grandiose and epic scope," as one art critic put it (note 6). There's also some Spanish exuberance and lots of surrealist images. These paintings are personal, internal, deeply symbolic, perhaps depicting aspects of the artist herself. I haven't seen many of her other works, her smaller paintings, but these popular, larger works are stunning and evocative. 

Stuart Hodges Riordan was born in Lynchburg Virginia, grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, married and had two children.  She seems to have had a strong sense of her family tree.  After several dramatic life changes, travelling the world, living in exotic places like Morocco, learning the cello in Moldova, collecting dirt from various places to use in her paintings, she landed in Tallahassee, Florida (notes 1 & 3). I'm not sure if it was a smooth landing or not, in the larger sense of the term. But as noted, this is where her sister Sally lives, and that's how I learned about Stuart Riordan, the artist.  Stuart filled her life with her art and music, perhaps marched to a different drummer. Perhaps her oeuvre is her biography, although I have seen only a small part of it. I'd like to see more, her smaller works, her other visions, works in various mediums. I love this one, published by John Dos Passos Coggen (note 1). 

Stuart Riordan's lovely painting of Palma-de-Majorca.

An art critic, writing about an exhibit she had at the LeMoyne Art Center

Is she scuba diving here,
getting her dog?

 in Tallahassee in 2018, remarked that Riordan's paintings reminded him of Caraveggio and deVinci "with the drama of deep darks and blinding lights called Chiaroscuro...and also Rene Magritte and his surreal references with the impossible poses of her figures as they fly through space or descend as angels onto airport landings."  (note 3)

Stuart Riordan's art takes us on flights of fancy into the souls of mysterious women and places, some mythological, some super realistic, all full of rich textures and fascinating symbolism. Her women are physically strong, adventurous, some angry, some curious, all larger than-life, at least in the images I've seen.  It's an intriguing journey.

A good example of Riordan's fusion of the Chiaroscuro style and Magritte's surrealism,and Salvador Dali's too. This strong woman by
 the sea is surrounded by musical notes. Is the music making her sad?  

Sources:

1.  http://www.johndospassoscoggin.com/artists-and-innovators/artists-innovators-stuart-riordan-painter/

2.  https://m.facebook.com/SFAUniversitySeries/photos/a.240349806175184/240355949507903/?type=3

3.  https://www.tallahassee.com/story/00000/2018/05/05/lemoyne-presents-artist-stuart-riordans-first-tallahassee-exhibit-six-years/570904002/

4.  https://www.tallahassee.com/obituaries/tad065380

5.  https://www.tallahassee.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2022/04/29/tallahassee-artist-stuart-riordan-through-years/9576445002/

6. https://www.sfasu.edu/about-sfa/newsroom/2015/cole-art-center-exhibition-feature-work-florida-artist-riordan.  About an exhibition of Riordan's work entitled "Stuart Riordan: Sardines & Oranges," which was held at the Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches, TX, featuring Riordan's renowned paintings of the human form, according to John Handley, director of galleries at SFA. "Riordan has said of her work, "The human body has more gestures, mystery and intrigue, and everybody can relate to it. I think Socrates said an artist does his stuff but is not 'there' when doing it, and only after it is done can the artist formulate ideas of the work and viewers formulate their ideas." Quoting abstract expressionist artist Willem de Kooning, she said, "'It's all in the flesh' is what de Kooning said, and he was right."

Tallahassee Democrat writer and columnist Mark Hinson wrote: "At first glance, Riordan's accomplished human figure paintings seem formal and even neo-traditional - far away from, for example, de Kooning's 'Women' series. But on closer inspection the viewer notices her attention to the gestural aspects of the painting - the swirls of color, the layering of paint, the strokes that have been created by using the other end of the brush, of the fractured sentences and phrases that run across the work as if yanked out of some larger sequence." Hinson notes that Riordan mixes her own paints, which are made from dirt, clay, pumice and dry pigments imported from distant locations such as Tasmania and Australia.

7. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-19th-century-axe-murderer-lizzie-borden-was-found-not-guilty-180972707/