Part of the strength of Amy Sillman’s paintings derives from their conscious use of awkwardness as an aspect of form. Unfolding as a series of spontaneous developments, My Pirate captures the procession of thought, mirroring the meander of the subconscious. Through this free-form approach to painting, Sillman develops a painterly dimension where landscapes emerge as emotive terrains. Formalist structures of lines, shape, color, and shading become signifiers – pensive, blissful, menacing, or frail – each lending their qualities to almost recognisable forms. Attenuate lines become sunbeams and grass, splotches of colour are read as flowers and lakes. Within her complex abstractions, Sillman offers a sense of self: a deeply intimate position in space, time and mind, reflective of a transient perception of beauty and imagination.