“Dilworth Park No.2 - Joy For Uncertain Times”
Christina Tarkoff’s Exclusive Palette and Inclusive World
by David P. Kozinski
According to her husband, Christina Tarkoff is now “a thing” in their Drexel Hill, PA neighborhood. When the pandemic of 2020 closed schools and businesses and had people staying closer to home, she noticed families walking and biking together through the community. It occurred to her to place yard signs – like those used by construction companies and election campaigns – with some of her artworks printed on them, along the edges of her corner property.
Tarkoff says her husband, “was doubtful, because my work has a certain political tone. The response was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done as an artist.” People sent her positive e-mail messages or left notes, and motorists, “would beep their horns if we were outside. People really appreciated looking at art during the dark days of Covid.” A one-minute video of her outdoor art gallery can be seen on her website via this link: https://christinatarkoff.com/behind-the-scenes/2020/4/christinas-outdoor-art-gallery.
The award-winning artist lists her priorities when creating a painting as subject, composition, color and observes, “The human face and figure is the most captivating subject for me. I enjoy painting the snippets of everyday life.” Tarkoff depicts a musician called Wali performing on the sidewalk in front of the iconic Philadelphia museum in “Music at the Rodin.” The flutist stands in the foreground, right of center, and is framed by the Rodin’s central columns. The sky is overcast and the colors muted, which seems appropriate to the contemplative setting.
“Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop” shows a man sitting in front of said establishment, in conversation with a pair of standing women, take-out coffee cups in hand. The varied materials in the row of stores – brick, horizontal siding and possibly stucco – along with the segmented sidewalk, the shops’ signs and a large, round clock create a busy geometric quilt that contrasts with what could be a leisurely weekend scene. The neighboring store’s cerulean façade is echoed in blues of different hues throughout the painting while the bright yellow sign of the cheese shop and one woman’s pink jacket provide splashes of contrasting color.
Tarkoff notes, “I use what is known as a limited palette. It consists of five colors – burnt umber, ultramarine blue, red, cadmium yellow and white.” She mixes the colors for her paintings from there. Employed sparingly, bright shades quietly guide the viewer’s eyes and emotions in her portraits and street scenes.
Children at play are featured in “Dilworth Park No. 2 – Joy for Uncertain Times,” and “Sidewalk Drawing – Washington Square,” while two men who could be father and son face off in concentration in “The Chess Match.” In the Dilworth Park summer scene, movement is derived both horizontally, from the kids running around in the fountain’s pool, and vertically as the jets of water shoot up and splash down. The Washington Square painting presents a gaggle of girls and boys creating, contemplating and playing above the chalk drawings they’ve made on the sidewalk. Tarkoff mostly uses oil paint because she likes the way it dries slowly, but “Sidewalk Drawing” is done in acrylic. The bright red of a boy’s shirt, in the middle of the piece, is subtly repeated in a pair of red shorts worn by a figure in the distance. The elder chess player sports a drab green jacket while his younger opponent wears a blue parka and jeans. They might be indoors, but, given their attire, are probably outside. The painting doesn’t make it clear. What matters is their silent, cerebral warfare.
Raised in Bethlehem, PA, Tarkoff began drawing as a child, encouraged by her parents, and writes, “Because I was always an ‘artist’ I never viewed it as a career or a way to make money.” It is part of her identity, “as sure as the color of my hair or the shape of my nose.” Tarkoff has had her own graphic design business “for many years,” serving select corporate clients. Major influences on her artwork are painters Edward Hopper and John Singer Sargent as well as the British graffiti artist, political activist and documentarian Bansky, AKA, Robin Gunningham.
She studied painting at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and calls the highlight of her art education a semester spent in Rome in 1978. This was recommended by her painting and drawing teacher, Neil Kosh, whose work can be seen at Philadelphia’s Woodmere Museum. For one painting class, Kosh gave the students wood panels to work on so that they could experience painting on a different substrate from canvas. Because the panels were small, Tarkoff decided to paint only the model’s head. Upon seeing her work, the professor said, “Oh, looks like a Modigliani.” She recalls, “I just smiled and said thank you … embarrassed to admit at the time that I had no idea who Modigliani was.”
Judged the “Best Emerging Artist” at the 2019 Manayunk Arts Festival, Tarkoff’s awards and honors include a Knight Foundation Honorarium in conjunction with the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Cultureshare program for her painting “Dancing in Rittenhouse Square.” She has exhibited her artwork at Saatchi Art online gallery, Borrelli’s Chestnut Hill Gallery, The Philadelphia Sketch Club, the Community Arts Center of Wallingford and The Mainline Art Center, among other venues. Her painting “Music at Rittenhouse Square” graced the cover of Philadelphia Stories magazine’s January 2018 issue.
“Woman with Silver Earring” won second prize in the 2020 Annual Juried Show at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center (MRAC), where Tarkoff regularly exhibits and contributes to the non-profit’s marketing and publicity efforts. She wanted to create a contemporary version of Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring.” Tarkoff’s subject cocks her head toward the viewer, eyes slightly narrowed and lips parted, in an expression both quizzical and guarded. The flower tucked behind her ear, perhaps an orchid, and the dangling earring, lend a jaunty flair to her demeanor that contrasts with her blue work shirt.
Tarkoff has received an Honorable Mention in the MRAC Ekphrastic Show. Her portrait of tattooed, almond-eyed “Alexandra” inspired poems by members of the art center’s Humanities Division, who were free to choose their subjects from hundreds of artworks shown at MRAC throughout 2019. Returning our gaze, the woman leans on the ornate, wrought-iron railing of a balcony that overlooks a city street. Her pink halter-top, along with the light playing on her skin and the hoop in her ear, accent the mostly gray-scale scene.
In 2018 Tarkoff was inspired to begin a series of small oil and mixed media portraits, “Women Who Shatter Barriers.” Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and activist and Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai are among the notables. Although many of the original works have sold, reproductions are available as prints, and also on earrings and coaster/tiles. These images, along with collections that offer animals and pets, nature and still life depictions, “Philadelphia and Beyond” and portraits that include quotations from poems such as Angelou’s “Still I Rise” reflect the artist’s inclusive attitude toward the world and her work. Her artist’s mission statement declares, “With my paintings, I try to tell stories that cross traditional barriers such as gender, age, income, education & race to help us understand the most important art of all – the art of being human.”
It’s no wonder that motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians react positively to Tarkoff’s outdoor gallery, just as viewers do when her work is exhibited in more traditional surroundings. Hers is an embrace of the simple pleasure and beauty to be found in people, animals, plants – in all living things.
About the Author: David P. Kozinski received a poetry fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts and was named 2018’s Mentor of the Year by Expressive Path, a non-profit that fosters youth participation in the arts. His full-length book of poems, Tripping Over Memorial Day, was published by Kelsay Books. He received the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize, including publication of his chapbook, Loopholes (Broadkill Press). Kozinski is the resident poet at the Rockwood Museum in Wilmington, DE. He serves on the boards of the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center and the Eastern Shore Writers Association and on the Editorial Board of Philadelphia Stories magazine.
