"Inevitable" explores the dynamic interplay between watercolor, ink, and acrylic on textured polypropylene. The layered composition draws the viewer into a swirling chaos, balanced by untouched white borders that contain the energy within. 🎨
56 x 56 inches, watercolor, ink, and acrylic on textured polypropylene, 2016
This is a painting I made in 2016, but this photo was taken in 2023. Still looks great. A lot has changed since 2016, including in my painting. This was an era of pure abstraction. Most my more recent work is littered with bits of text or words/letters as shaped elements, little doodles of animals, and collaged bits paper from various interesting sources.
I had a solo show recently in which I showcased a number of fine paintings that incorporated quite a bit of collage in the form of cut out characters from Richard Scarry books—referencing childhood and my own newish identity as a father who reads odd books to his children (but not those fairy tale books because they are wretched)—as well as mementos from my own upbringing such as some Star Trek trading cards I collected as a youth and bit and bobs from inside my current studio like canceled checks from institutions that give me money in exchange for me letting them use or sell my work.
I feel like there is a natural end to this line of work. Not that one can ever truly be done reconciling with the trauma of one's own coming into existence, but I feel the push to go back to a more pure form of abstraction.
Those of you who have been paying attention may ask, but what about those paintings you're working on that have computers and motors and cameras and things in them that move around and respond to the viewer? Well I am going to keep that going, because it's fun and weird and I can do programing stuff when I'm up by myself at night, but I think it's going to be a bit of a side project for a bit.