Vevers began Flesh Memories during a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 1993 and later expanded the series at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She studied the fresco technique of painting into wet plaster at the Skowhegan School of Painting + Sculpture and later, Pre-Renaissance frescoes during travels in Italy. In this series, Vevers used modeling paste, gesso, and oils in multiple translucent glazes to create richly tactile surfaces emulating frescoes. The figure is pushed right up to the picture plane, with sensuality and traces of lived experience mapped across the body—or as Vevers says, “desire, fear, joy and sorrow made flesh.”
Shown in tandem is Transient Anatomies, a companion series painted directly on goatskin vellum and mounted between two sheets of glass. This intimate body of work, conceived as a daily anatomical journal, references medieval manuscripts and underscores Vevers’ conviction that materials can deeply augment the message. Together, these series highlight Vevers’ ongoing dialogue between art history, materiality, and the human body—a dialogue that remains as vital and resonant today as when first exhibited.
