May 1, 2025
Rochele Gomez
It's Just Not the Same Without You
As-Is Gallery
April 5 - May 10, 2025
Rochele Gomez
A lot can be said, as well as inferred, across five images. The photographs that make up Rochele Gomez's exhibition It's Just Not the Same Without You are back-lit modestly sized light boxes depicting dwellings around Los Angeles where the artist once resided. While each one shows a place, the focal point is a large hand painted greeting card featuring the cartoon character Garfield with an accompanying thought bubble and/or a quasi-philosophical, self-help oriented text.
Gomez, a Mexican American whose family has lived in Los Angeles since the early 20th century refers to the photographs as performances. To make them, she carried a giant cardboard card to each location and placed it as close to the actual house as she could. The distance of the card to the house signifies the relationship she currently has with its occupants. At some locations, she does not know the tenant, so she placed the card as close as she dared to venture onto the property, took the picture and then disappeared as quickly as possible. Photographs of her current abode and the house she grew up in allow for closer placement and less clandestine interventions.
At each location, Gomez juxtaposes a large hand painted reproduction of an actual Garfield greeting card. The beloved cat offers 'dime store commentary' on the relationship between home and the memories associated with that place. Garfield shares an affinity with the character Lucy — from the Charlie Brown comic — who operates a psychiatric booth in the form of a lemonade stand. Here, Garfield also functions as a tour guide, appearing in each location with a different sentiment.
Los Angeles Feelings (90042) (all works 2024) is a photograph of the house Gomez currently lives in. She started with this image because she knew it would be the easiest to shoot — where if confronted, she had the security that she was placing this large sign on the sidewalk in front of her own house. In this image, a sneaker wearing Garfield is centered in the bottom half of a brown background. From his head, a thought bubble rises with the text, "You're as comfortable as an old pair of shoes."Moving back in time, Gomez visits her parents' house — the home where she and her siblings grew up. In Los Angeles Feelings (91042), the zip code 91042 is for Tujunga, a neighborhood north of the city nested within the Crescenta Valley and Verdugo Mountains. In the photograph, Gomez focuses on the greenery and plants, as well as the distant hills. In the painting, Garfield points one finger in the air. The background color of the card is light blue, paralleling the sky. The caption reads, "I will attempt to put into words my deepest and most intense feelings for you" while the thought bubble proclaims, "I love lasagna!"
Los Angeles Feelings (90039) is an image of a house set back from the street. It once belonged to Gomez's grandparents. The house was sold when her grandfather passed. To make the photograph, Gomez states she knocked on the door but there was no reply so she hastily set up the shot and left as quickly as she could. In the deep maroon colored card, Garfield has a sad face and is slumped on a light blue mattress. Below him the text states, "Sometimes when I feel like nobody understands me it helps to think of you." The implication is to apply this sentiment to Gomez's fond remembrance of her grandparents.
A general Google search for Garfield greeting cards reveals three cards that are featured in the series, confirming the fact that Gomez appropriated rather than invented them. While the Garfield card in the 90039 image had a purple rather than deep red background, the image is much the same. The actual card that was the source for the 90026 photograph is not exactly like Gomez's rendition. In both, the background is green and the cat blows a horn and wears a party hat. In Gomez's painting, the text — It's just not the same without you — is in a thought bubble, rather than black type at the top of the image.
What are greeting cards for? They commemorate birthdays, passings as well as holidays. They express joy, as well as sympathy and sometimes put words to thoughts and feelings that may be difficult to say. By selecting Garfield greeting cards, Gomez draws from a specific sector of popular culture. Cat lover or not, Garfield is a known entity — a sarcastic and tragic-comic figure that is a bit lazy but also fun-loving, mindful and a bit philosophical. He is a character that most can relate to.
It's Just Not the Same Without You is a smart, conceptual series. By using Garfield as a guide through a neighborhood tour of her life, Gomez both celebrates and confronts this trajectory. Through an exploration of absence, change and memory, these evocative photographs illustrate the importance of embracing one's history.
It's Just Not the Same Without You
As-Is Gallery
April 5 - May 10, 2025
Rochele Gomez
A lot can be said, as well as inferred, across five images. The photographs that make up Rochele Gomez's exhibition It's Just Not the Same Without You are back-lit modestly sized light boxes depicting dwellings around Los Angeles where the artist once resided. While each one shows a place, the focal point is a large hand painted greeting card featuring the cartoon character Garfield with an accompanying thought bubble and/or a quasi-philosophical, self-help oriented text.
Gomez, a Mexican American whose family has lived in Los Angeles since the early 20th century refers to the photographs as performances. To make them, she carried a giant cardboard card to each location and placed it as close to the actual house as she could. The distance of the card to the house signifies the relationship she currently has with its occupants. At some locations, she does not know the tenant, so she placed the card as close as she dared to venture onto the property, took the picture and then disappeared as quickly as possible. Photographs of her current abode and the house she grew up in allow for closer placement and less clandestine interventions.
At each location, Gomez juxtaposes a large hand painted reproduction of an actual Garfield greeting card. The beloved cat offers 'dime store commentary' on the relationship between home and the memories associated with that place. Garfield shares an affinity with the character Lucy — from the Charlie Brown comic — who operates a psychiatric booth in the form of a lemonade stand. Here, Garfield also functions as a tour guide, appearing in each location with a different sentiment.
Los Angeles Feelings (90042) (all works 2024) is a photograph of the house Gomez currently lives in. She started with this image because she knew it would be the easiest to shoot — where if confronted, she had the security that she was placing this large sign on the sidewalk in front of her own house. In this image, a sneaker wearing Garfield is centered in the bottom half of a brown background. From his head, a thought bubble rises with the text, "You're as comfortable as an old pair of shoes."Moving back in time, Gomez visits her parents' house — the home where she and her siblings grew up. In Los Angeles Feelings (91042), the zip code 91042 is for Tujunga, a neighborhood north of the city nested within the Crescenta Valley and Verdugo Mountains. In the photograph, Gomez focuses on the greenery and plants, as well as the distant hills. In the painting, Garfield points one finger in the air. The background color of the card is light blue, paralleling the sky. The caption reads, "I will attempt to put into words my deepest and most intense feelings for you" while the thought bubble proclaims, "I love lasagna!"
Los Angeles Feelings (90039) is an image of a house set back from the street. It once belonged to Gomez's grandparents. The house was sold when her grandfather passed. To make the photograph, Gomez states she knocked on the door but there was no reply so she hastily set up the shot and left as quickly as she could. In the deep maroon colored card, Garfield has a sad face and is slumped on a light blue mattress. Below him the text states, "Sometimes when I feel like nobody understands me it helps to think of you." The implication is to apply this sentiment to Gomez's fond remembrance of her grandparents.
A general Google search for Garfield greeting cards reveals three cards that are featured in the series, confirming the fact that Gomez appropriated rather than invented them. While the Garfield card in the 90039 image had a purple rather than deep red background, the image is much the same. The actual card that was the source for the 90026 photograph is not exactly like Gomez's rendition. In both, the background is green and the cat blows a horn and wears a party hat. In Gomez's painting, the text — It's just not the same without you — is in a thought bubble, rather than black type at the top of the image.
What are greeting cards for? They commemorate birthdays, passings as well as holidays. They express joy, as well as sympathy and sometimes put words to thoughts and feelings that may be difficult to say. By selecting Garfield greeting cards, Gomez draws from a specific sector of popular culture. Cat lover or not, Garfield is a known entity — a sarcastic and tragic-comic figure that is a bit lazy but also fun-loving, mindful and a bit philosophical. He is a character that most can relate to.
It's Just Not the Same Without You is a smart, conceptual series. By using Garfield as a guide through a neighborhood tour of her life, Gomez both celebrates and confronts this trajectory. Through an exploration of absence, change and memory, these evocative photographs illustrate the importance of embracing one's history.