eye of the wolf

This series of recent paintings were completed in the last several months. As they were unfolding in my studio, I sensed a familiar set of unwelcome emotions motivating my actions. Unwelcome, because when these feelings surface, they can inhibit my intuitive and even the technical flow of the paint. Yet at the same time, I was hard-pressed to identify from where they emanated. Having recently emerged from four years of isolation (partially motivated by Covid), I had worked to integrate so many of my personal and creative impulses. I felt I had exorcised many of the demons that had been weighing heavily upon me. Yet, here I was again, gripped by an uncomfortable, hidden emotional force.

As is my natural temperament, I decided to lean heavily into this emotional block, turning it upside down and inside out. In doing so, my thoughts turned away from my inner struggle, away from my studio, and into the greater, collective, consciousness of the outside world. As my energy began to shift, I began to realize what was affecting my work. Man’s inhumanity to man. The erosion of the social order as we know it. The chaos and destruction of war, and the climactic changes that are sweeping across our planet. I believed that I was able to shut out these feelings and thoughts whenever I entered my studio to paint. But when I look at the totality of this new body of work, I realize that everything that surrounds me is ingrained in a part of my expression.

Where have I landed? It seems that there is no looking backward for solutions. I confess that I sometimes lack faith in the future, but I also bear in mind humankind’s surprising and uncanny ability to overcome adversity. The paintings explore complex, multiple stratifications (sometimes resolved, at times left dangling) and the duality in which we find ourselves at this moment. There is a genuine fear of the unknown we live in, and at the same time a joy about the possibilities that lie ahead of us. I delve into how these universal tensions can be expressed compositionally. And so, I stand, at the edge, unresloved.