Towards Life
It's a hard thing not to be overwhelmed by fear and sadness and anger at the apparent injustice of the universe. It's hard to believe the universe has gone through all the trouble to develop our consciousness and left that terrible design flaw that borders it, and it's seemingly arbitrary application (hello, mister death). The studio process is a way for me to make something beautiful and honest and true out of those emotions of frustration, sadness and anger. It is a way of seeking understanding, and acceptance, and hope.
It seems nature possesses a fundamental understanding of itself, it is terrible economy and strict logic that balances inside and outside, up and down, left and right. Compared to the amorphous nature of emotion and meaning in our subjective experience, there is strong cool comfort in a horizon, a load path, light and shade and shadow. In painting, I seek to negotiate a balance between the inner and outer spaces of my being. I always begin with the internal need, the burning desire to continue, and achieve, and consume, and move outwards, towards life, in it's formal balance, it's arbitration, it's justice, it's rhythm, it's ineffable timing, it's cruelty, it's truth, it's reality.
"Trying to be a tree" series, 2012, in progress.
Available Nov 1st, 2012 at The New Mystics: West Coast Painters curated by Jordan Quintero, Jellyfish Gallery, 1286 Folsom St, San Francisco, Ca
I like these trees. I've been interested in branches for a long time. I'm trying to work on a branch quilt. Not something that will look like a tree exactly but bifurcation - branches. We always have a choices about where to vector our emotional energy.
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