Jocelyn Toffic’s feminine figures in Portsmouth

The paintings on the brick walls of The Press Room in Portsmouth seem to have a theme, enough so that after a couple of pints, people begin to make guesses.

The artist, Jocelyn Toffic, might know the story behind the paintings. Then again, she might not—or she might not want to tell it. She’s heard people talk and she enjoys all the different ideas.
It’s the first time Toffic has shown her work outside of the University of New Hampshire, where she graduated with an art degree in 2007. She says interpretations come with putting work in public. Her paintings will be on display at the pub until the end of the month, then she is scheduled to show it at Gracie’s Diner, also in Portsmouth.

After that, Toffic isn’t sure. She just wants to finish the series, which the four larger paintings belong to. The large pieces are not for sale, while another three or more are works in progress. But there are many smaller paintings that have been selling for around $50 and getting replaced by new ones during the month-long art show.

The series, called “Stages of Decomposition,” is marked by feminine figures in dresses and heels, often yellow dresses seemingly of a mid-century era. Sometimes there is only one woman slumped over on a stoop or collapsed on a bed, but other times there are several identical looking women, climbing stairs or walking hallways in an urban setting.

It looks as though the spirit is breaking down beneath an industrious effort to be everything for everyone. The corresponding exhaustion is all the more sympathetic in such lovely, lonely ladies—but that’s only a guess.

“I don’t know that I know, myself, what’s happening,” Toffic said. “I like the idea of storytelling and narrating. I don’t know the story, but I want to communicate that there is a story.”

Toffic has only denied one guess. The paintings are not about her daughter, she said, although her daughter is involved in all her other life decisions. She lives with her 6-year-old in Dover, and the girl’s father lives nearby. She said she can’t completely dedicate herself to art because she has a child.
Toffic has no intention of moving to a big city to try to make it big, for instance. “I kind of like my life right now,” she said. “I just want to be happy doing this and maybe something will come of it and maybe something doesn’t. I’m pretty content.”

She has a sunlit studio at home, where she can work whenever time allows. It has the same faint scent of oil paints as the booths near her paintings at The Press Room. Paint is smeared in globs across one table and piled up on her grandfather’s palette, which she said was immaculate before she borrowed it. She comes from a family of artists.

Beyond the thick layers of oil paints on Toffic’s works, the sketchy outlines of charcoal are still visible. Like her style, Toffic says she thinks any theme behind her paintings is somewhat transparent, not hidden. She says there’s no meaning behind her distinctive style.

“It’s just appealing on a natural, visceral level,” she said. “You can see the stages.”  

Interpretation is up to the viewer.

The Press Room is located at 77 Daniel St., Portsmouth, 603-431-5186.