Venice – Topanga Working Class
Artist Statement
“Spatial Empathy” describes the awareness of an individual to the proximity, activities, and comfort of people surrounding them. It is related to the notion of personal space, the concept that an individual has ownership of their immediate surroundings; and for others to invade this space represents an infringement on their privacy. A person’s personal space (and corresponding comfort zone) is highly variable and difficult to measure accurately.
Estimates place spatial empathy at about 24” on either side, 28” in front, and 16” behind in Western culture. My figurative oil paintings, painted in the style of the old masters, follow the tenets of spatial empathy and depict working class people in Topanga and Venice CA: people at their jobs, protesting, and moving through the space of their everyday lives.
Charles Borges Accardi is a figurative oil painter, who lives in the hippie arts community of Topanga canyon. He holds an MFA in visual art from Vermont College, and his work has recently been featured at the Torrance Art Museum and for multiple years on the Topanga Art Walk. His figurative paintings have graced the covers of literary magazines such as Blood Orange Review.
