Dark Suburbian Scenes of Alberto Ortega: An Interplay of Alienation and Nostalgia

“My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lined streets, the milkmen, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle American as it’s suppose to be. But on the cherry tree there’s this pitch oozing out – some black, some yellow – and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath.”

(David Lynch)

Painting by Alberto Ortega

As I have already written in the March my inspiration post, one of my biggest inspirations, and amusements, these days is the show “Desperate Housewives” (2004-2012) and a rediscovery of an old favourite, David Lynch’s film “Blue Velvet” (1986). The strangeness of suburbs is a motif that both of these have in common. The dual nature of the suburbs is my latest fascination; perfect on the outside, secrets and mystery on the outside. Suburbs are at once the idealised version of the American life and a place where the dark uncercurrents of the human nature are brought to surface. Suburbs are idyllic; a quiet, clean, and orderly environment with neatly trimmed lawns, white picked fences and immaculately designed homes, all of these elements suggest comfort, security, and stability. But they are also symbolic of conformity. Alberto Ortega is one of my latest artistic discoveries and today I am sharing many of his amazing paintings.

Ortega was born in Seville, Spain, but is living and working in Raleigh, North California now. His paintings of suburban scenes capture the overlooked beauty and the quiet drama of the suburban life. Something ordinary becomes mysterious and ominous in Ortega’s paintings. Ortega finds beauty in the details; the contours of a well-worn sidewalk, the light from the streetlamp falling on the quiet, empty street, the way the tree branches are touching the house. It is as if Ortega’s paintings invite us to look more closely at the world around them and to find beauty in the seemingly mundane.

As you will notice in this selection of Ortega’s paintings, they are all very similar but that is exactly what is intersting about them. The point of Ortega’s art is not the endless quest for something new and exciting out-there, but an endless exploration of the familar and what is already around. There is a photorealistic element to the paintings as well, they seem almost like photography. The brushstrokes are meticulous. We don’t get a sense of urgency and wildness, but a sense that Ortega is patiently and carefully building his dream film-noir world. The houses all look similar and the street looks the same, but Ortega’s plays with the details to convey a mood. It is always night in these paintings and whoever is outside at a late hour must be doing something suspicious, or at least something interesting enough to arouse the curiosity of the neighbours. In some paintings we see that a light on the certain window is on while the other windows are dark.

Two men with suitcases. A man standing on his porch while the woman with bags is leaving. The figures in Ortega’s art are a few but they always play a key role in arousing a sense of mystery. The light is always dramatic in these paintings, and the play of light and shadows also add to the drama. A recurring theme throughout these paintings is an interplay between alienation and nostalgic. There is a sense of isolation in this quiet, suburban world. The figures always appear emotionally distant, cold, detached. The same sense of safety that people so eagerly seek in the suburbs may lead to an absence of individuality and a desire to blend in may lead to a sense of disconnent. These houses feel cold and uninvating, they don’t feel like homes. Perhaps the pursuit of order and stability of the suburbia comes at the cost of a deeper emotional fulfilment. One thing is certain, as David Lynch shows us many times; there is always something simmering underneath the surface, a quiet tension that is both personal and universal. Unexpressed longings and repressed desires, all hiding behind closed white doors and neatly trimmed laws.

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