Every Time the Sun Comes Up Every Time the Sun Comes Upi is the wistful song playing in the background while artist Ro Murray works alone and to a new rhythm in her studio. For many, this recent lockdown has been a time defined by isolation and yearning. The words of the chorus - every time the sun comes up, I’m in trouble - reference repetition, physical cycles and what it is to be blue, but also describe a sunrise, so are tinted with warmth and the possibility of renewal.
Image courtesy of The Guthrie Group.
The linoleum-printed series made during this period, Riff in Prussian Blue, sees a marked shift in colour. Murray’s past signature palette of red and black on white has relaxed and given way to yellows and blues, woven through with violets and greens. Visually it seems as if the new hues have been laid over and across the old familiar order - the inks transforming, blending and softening. These are colours chosen for their calming and healing associations. Rather than a dominant symbol, there are instead layers, nuance and translucency and with the resulting harmonies, an evocation of vulnerability and somehow, liberation.