Hope Harrison's words

Adah Rose Gallery's former intern and now UVA student Hope Harrison wrote these very cool words about one of my pieces - from my Obsessive Drawings series...

“Suddenly She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer”
F. Lennox Campello, 2016 Charcoal on Paper
In the Hope Harrison Collection

A woman leaping in a white void, with arms up, legs outstretched, and a tan line on her butt fully exposed in a moment of glory. This individual may be part dancer and part warrior, but, surely, she is fearless. Indeed, the bronzed figure in mid-leap seems to distill all freedom and courage within her, as she dynamically flies on the paper. The space around this figure is left to the imagination of the viewer; the woman may be jumping off a cliff and into a lake, or she may be plunging into the depths of space, her mind, or a vast unknown. All space and time collapse into this one figure, a form that is faceless yet ubiquitous in the sense that we may all hope to feel a similar same sense of liberation, be it from mental, physical, or extraneous challenges that may limit us.

F. Lennox Campello’s 2016 piece, “Suddenly She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer”, is a figurative drawing made with charcoal. In the presence of larger or more colorful works, this piece in theory could hang on a wall inconspicuously; however, the contrast and surprising sense of depth that Campello creates by placing such an active and expressive figure in a nonexistent, and therefore stagnant, background is striking. The stylistic decisions made for this piece, which is relatively simplistic for Campello’s work, emphasize line and form in a singular way.

Hope Harrison

UVA 2020