Only a half-dozen square, colorful, precise paintings are left behind, stacked amid brushes and Solo cups, at Clare Rojas’ sun-drenched Dogpatch studio, its walls hung with prepped linens to begin a new body of work.

“I just shipped out my show ‘Spaces in Between’ to Chicago’s Kavi Gupta Gallery, so there is not much art left,” explains the petite brunette with a Louise Brooks bob.

The small abstracts that remain are based on “a tension of balance and a love affair with color, as my work is going deeper into this inner psychological space,” says Rojas. They represent Rojas’ major and recent shift from a more folksy, narrative style of painting “based on empowering women”—including “Male Preserve,” a body of work dedicated to the male nude, which was presented at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery at Fort Mason in 2010.

While liberated of narrative in her current visual work, storytelling is still familiar territory for Peggy Honeywell, Rojas’ country-singing alter ego, who will perform at her husband Barry McGee’s exhibit at Berkeley Art Museum on Nov. 16. 

This article was published in 7x7's November issue. Click here to subscribe.