Crimes of The Art

Mieles takes off from the sensational media coverage of their crime and their trial and adds a mythic dimension in paintings such as "Of Job's Daughters, Choir Girls, and Homecoming Queens." This powerful picture, its title suggesting how damaged children of the middle American middle class can become larger-than-life figures of tragedy, depicts three young women wtih shaved heads and fiendish expressions. Although the image is based on a news photo that appeared during the trial of the Manson ggirls wth their heads shaved to demonstrate their nun-like devotion to their twisted guru, Charlie, in Mieles' painting, they look like a cross between harpies and The Three Graces.

Even more chilling for its combinatin of evil and erotic allure is a painting entitled "The Clan", depicting five nude young women, their tresses still intact, huddled together like Valkyries. Here, there is a suggestion of the orgiastic events at the Manson commune, where paradise could suddenly turn hellish for those who allowed themselves to be seduced by its promise of drugs and sex.

But perhaps the most unsettling image of all is "Susan," a portrait of a pretty, smiling young woman, her face and the wall behind her splashed with blood - for it evokes the violence of the Tate murders with graphic directness. Linda's gleeful expression makes her look as innocent as a kindergarten kid covered with poster paint. The picture is all the more disturbing because it is beautifully pained in vibrant, translucent color washes so aesthetically pleasing that they almost make us feel complicity in the crime.

Also included are two acrylic paintings, of which "Twilight of Aquarius," a composition of figures in a landscape with allegorical undertones, was this writer's favorite. Still, Mieles seems to do her best work in the more fluid medium of aniline dyes, which lend her pictures an unsurpassed sense of spontaneity and freshness.

This is especially effective in a painting called "Another Night in Paradise," which provides fantasy relief from Mieles' grimmer documentary subjects. The picture shows a typical New York tenement with various shady characters scampering up and down its fire-escape: a pair of junkies gingerly lifting someone's TV set out a window; a woman aiming a gun; another woman, nude taking flight into the night with an avian grace that suggests freedom from the laws of gravity.

Although the scene contains a great deal of detail, it does not get bogged down in fussiness. Raher, Jessica Mieles' technique retains a sparkling fluidity that imbues the composition with lively wit.

- J. Sanders Eaton