I find myself thinking about growing up in the deserts of West Texas and New Mexico, remembering those sun bleached nights of the long flat plains, watching spaceships and shooting stars... remembering back to when it was an ocean floor with pirate ships floating overhead. Now, they are empty lands with cowboys, cattle, pump jacks and lonely tumbleweeds. Everything always seems to come in extremes, be it sunshine, darkness, drought or rain. Light and liquid are magical and mysterious things to me. I think it has to do with the power they both represent. The idea that a bright shining light can represent salvation in one instance and damnation in another, and liquid can be the blessing of new life or a cover of judgement upon an entire planet.
There was a time when deserts were oceans, full of sea horses, clouds of jelly fish, disco balls and other mystical creatures. The thought that these two periods somehow coexist and can be the liminal space between destruction and celebration is where my current work begins. I feel that is how life, society and the world at large are. My work is about discussing and exploring these ideas through use of desolate landscapes and the disparity of objects. The objects in my paintings are not about literal representation as much as they are about the divergence of ideas. Philip Guston once said, “ Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.” Sometimes a void is just what is needed to communicate the nothingness, but at times, a bunch of nothings say it even louder.
The investigation of these opposing junctures, and the space in between, open a discussion about the ethos of our time. It is a celebration of the facade, without acting as though we are being fooled, similar to the paintings of James Ensor. Maybe Mardi Gras or traditional costume parties are good examples, but without using such literal forms of these festivities. There is a celebration, but an undertone of the grotesque and doom as the festivities proceed.
(photo by Nathan Smith)
There was a time when deserts were oceans, full of sea horses, clouds of jelly fish, disco balls and other mystical creatures. The thought that these two periods somehow coexist and can be the liminal space between destruction and celebration is where my current work begins. I feel that is how life, society and the world at large are. My work is about discussing and exploring these ideas through use of desolate landscapes and the disparity of objects. The objects in my paintings are not about literal representation as much as they are about the divergence of ideas. Philip Guston once said, “ Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.” Sometimes a void is just what is needed to communicate the nothingness, but at times, a bunch of nothings say it even louder.
The investigation of these opposing junctures, and the space in between, open a discussion about the ethos of our time. It is a celebration of the facade, without acting as though we are being fooled, similar to the paintings of James Ensor. Maybe Mardi Gras or traditional costume parties are good examples, but without using such literal forms of these festivities. There is a celebration, but an undertone of the grotesque and doom as the festivities proceed.
(photo by Nathan Smith)
