Chris Lowrance, Jennifer Wiggs, and Chris Fletcher discuss Sharon Patten: An Independent Vision at the The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri, on view through August 30, 2015.

Chris Lowrance introduces Patten's work, writing: "Patten’s paint is heavy, applied with a knife and so thick that the paintings frequently look different up close than from a distance. Figure and ground relationships that seem insistent from 10 feet away dissolve when the viewer moves in for a closer look. An outline can be literally obscured by a passage of impasto. And for all the physicality of the paintings, the role of design seems critical to the experience of these paintings. As does the role of metaphor. Patten herself was clear about the importance of metaphor in her work. It’s discussed in a quote from the artist posted on the gallery wall, and in titles of many of the paintings: 'Concurrence', 'Experience', 'Aplomb', 'Success', etc. For Patten abstraction was a form and a behavior."