My grandmother had a book from the Readers digest. It had lots of old wives tales in it, one that always stuck in my mind, was about how trustworthy a person based on the size of the half moons in their fingernails. While the story is total hogswash and there are many reasons for the half moons being present or not, this picture immediately reminded me of the book and its many little quirky facts.
Galieote paints everyday secrets and little fantasy moments. He captures the secret emotions and hidden thoughts of his subjects and leaves the viewer to interpret what is happening in his paintings on their own.
I really love the facial expression captured in this picture. Almost as though she has heard a really juicy piece of gossip, or listening to her next door neighbours having an intimate argument. The glass in the picture, has echoes of Escher in the way in which it distorts her hand and the wall paper as it fractures the light and conveys the messages from another room.
It’s a rather simplistic painting as first glance, it’s a face with a glass, but the message and thoughts it provokes is enormous, allowing the audience to make us their own stories, and ultimately what more is art, if not to invoke thought?
Galieote says “I love the idea of painting peoples secrets or secret thoughts. I think we all have thoughts that we may/may not say aloud or have thoughts which are acted out in some way. Of course, these intrusive thoughts, as they are called by psychologists, remain only our thoughts that no one hears about and remain with the person as a secret. With my paintings, I try to touch this nerve that everyone can relate to in some way.”
I think Galieote achieves painting the secret thoughts, or secret actions, presenting the audiences with an voyeuristic view of others inner depths.
The work is timeless with nothing to date the paintings one way or the other, and really portrays the universal acts which come as human nature.
What do you think the woman in the painting is listening to? Why not give me your theories in the comments?
Widowcranky 
I’m guessing it’s a fight between neighbors (like a married couple). When other people are happy, we tend to turn inwards, instead of wanting to partake in their joy. I’ve only noticed this sort of curiosity when a scandal is breaking, not a celebration.
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I like to think she’s listening in to a scandalous conversation… but art is so subjective, you really can make anything of it.
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This didn’t strike me as a simplistic painting at all at first. As an artist I know how hard those sorts of details are, even getting the ellipse of the glass on the wall correctly is a challenge. Ah, the curvilinear distortions of the wallpaper design coupled with the waves of her hair are magnificent. And even though she is listening, the giant eye is looking as if through the glass into the next room. It’s a bit of a gimmicky paintings, but superbly rendered.
I don’t care what she’s listening to, really. It’s all the beauty revealed on this side of the wall that captures my interest.
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To any non artists… it can look simplistic… generally I write from the perspective of the viewer, not the creator. As I very often say, art is subjective, and different people will feel different things. You prefer the technique to the narrative, which is great, but for those who don’t have an appreciation for art… the narrative is really important to bring it to life (we know this from paintings such as Whistler’s Mother).
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Good point. I should keep that in mind. Incidentally, I didn’t mean to be aggressive in saying I didn’t care about who the woman was listening to, I was being a bit hyperbolic. I was just wanting to stress how well the painting is done, and how beautiful technically.
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I didn’t take it as aggressive 😊 I am always up for a lively debate about art. I actually do appreciate the technical achievement that is in this painting, but what I like to do is bring art to people who might not necessarily feel they have an appreciation for it. One of the things that drives me insane about art literature is that they don’t give enough detail on either what is happening in the picture or the technical presentation of it. There is an assumed level of knowledge, which personally I feel turns a lot of people away from understanding a lot of works. I try and give a little bit of everything so people can feel comfortable with what they are seeing and have a little understanding of what they are viewing. This doesn’t mean I don’t get the technical achievements, but I do feel it is something that is for the more advanced art lover. I really like to present my articles a bit like having a discussion with a friend over the piece. I am more than happy for people to throw questions at me if they want to know more or give their opinions as this is all just written from my perspective and a passion that I like to share.
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Cool. I’m encouraged to see that people are still enjoying and sharing visual art.
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