ARTIST Veronica Buxton

The roots of this collection are my observations of people in public spaces in Italy, where I live for part of the year in a small Umbrian village. It began with simple snapshots of interactions in a piazza – the town square that acts as a stage for chance encounters. There, people watch and hope to be noticed; they talk, eat, play, and preen.
I find inspiration in other spaces where people gather, where they seek the company of others. From busy urban streets to cozy salons of conversation; in the tension of sharing a close space with a stranger, in the silent yearning for the world outside the living room window. And in spaces that are uninhabited, but that evoke the expectation of a gathering to come.

Produced during the 18 months of the Covid pandemic, these paintings reflect the physical and emotional responses evoked by an unknown future, dependent on the mutual good will and behavior of our neighbors. It is a counterpoint to the title’s contemporary mantra and suggests the infinite ways in which we cope – alone and together – with isolation, forced togetherness and the general anxiety of a world turned upside down. From contemplation to community, as in all things human, every relationship turns out to be about one relationship: the one with ourselves.r

Veronica Kludjian Buxton paints in oil in San Francisco and Orvieto, Italy.