The elements of choice and skill are not only what accounts for the tremendous power of Carnwath’s paintings. She has the ability to give the words and images a universal import and her use of a deep overall nocturnal black background is indicative of her tour de force as a colorist.

Anyone viewing these paintings for the first time might be drawn by the allure of the childlike images and idiosyncratic marks. The reality though is that when a child makes a mark, it is because that is what she can make; in other words she has to. The adult, Carnwath, makes the mark because she chooses to. In recent paintings, Carnwath creates a fragile alter ego in the form of an innocent bunny rabbit. Couched as the observer in painting after painting, she relays a personal and universal punch beyond the simplicity of the forms, and mirrors how in life we observe and accumulate memory. The bunny also represents an anchor that secures a continuing relationship between Carnwath’s paintings.

Carnwath has always had the ability to incorporate some of the simplest phrases in her paintings to convey the most profound and universal meaning. “guilt free zone,” which appears in more than one painting, is such a phrase. It is this kind of subtle sophistication that distinguishes her as an artist. Squeak Carnwath’s new paintings force us to touch the gamut of our range of feelings through her harmony of image, word, color, and form. Her work has a solemn beauty, which alternatively makes us smile and shed a tear. What at first seems random, coalesces into something profoundly coherent and visually stimulating, and ultimately gives us pause to contemplate our place and responsibility on this planet.