What sparked this body of work, and why did you feel compelled to make it now?
My work is grounded in the Mythopoetic. Through research and observations gathered from literature, nature, historical archives, and art history I’m looking to convey the richness of my experience. The Mythopoetic was born out of the Romantic and Symbolist painting movements, which informed the principles guiding the Surrealists. All of them have had an influence on my painting.
What ideas, emotions, or questions were guiding you while creating these pieces?
UK painter Andrew Cranston wrote this in one of his books and I thought it was poignant to my exploration and painting process. I’m paraphrasing here but he said HG Wells, writer and the “father” of Science Fiction, would only allow one unreal phenomenon within a story arc. For example, ‘the invisible man’ is invisible while everything else is normal or in War of the Worlds Earth is invaded by Martians. Science fiction circles call this “Well’s Law.” As someone who enjoys Science Fiction, in books and film, I hadn’t heard of this term. Well’s Law is similar to what I have learned about the story structure in myths. Myths often follow a story structure where everyday reality is punctuated by some out of the ordinary occurrence, which changes everything for the plot line. It’s not a surprise that myth continues to guide our modern storytellers across all types of media and that includes painting.
When I’m thinking about possible paintings and how to handle the scene, I’m often considering Well’s Law, or the mythic arc as illuminated by Jospeh Campbell, as it provides an inherent contradiction. Much of our life is steeped in contradictions and has been rich terrain for guiding this body of work.
How does this work connect to—or depart from—your previous practice?
This is a continuation into the themes and subject matter that have excited me for nearly two decades.
What materials or processes were essential to this work, and why?
I’m a believer in subject matter picking me versus me being overly deliberate about what to select. Often, I will gravitate to an image or respond to a reading. A sort of wordless pull occurs. There’s an engagement with the unconscious and dream logic that I explore with sketches, drawings, or digital software. This helps me establish a starting point to a painting. Many ideas don’t move beyond this stage. The ones that keep returning to me and I can’t let go of are the ones that guide my direction. Many ideas, even ones that I’m enthusiastic about, get abandoned at this early stage. Maybe it’ll come back around or maybe not. I have many of these quick, little drawings around the studio, at my house, in sketchbooks. Just all over.
I’m interested in the synthesis of elements like figures, landscapes, and architecture, - I want to see how they all sit together, in a familiar yet unexpected way. Sometimes they coalesce into a mysterious yet relatable type of environment and other times a fracturing is evident.
Usually, I start a painting without it fully formed even if I’ve made mockups or sketches. That way I find a resolution through the act of painting, and it forces me to be open to the unfolding scene. Many paintings have come together in ways I couldn’t have preplanned.
What do you hope viewers experience or take away when encountering the work in person?
As I've gotten older myths seem more relevant and insightful than ever. I enjoy how myths punctuate mundanity with an extraordinary moment or incident that spins the story into an uncanny place. This moving away from reality to better understand reality is how I think about painting. There is plenty of information in the world, especially considering our online lives, but there seems to be less wisdom. I think myths provide wisdom. I’m reminded of anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss who talks about how myths have a sociocultural function: “The mythic narrative is to make the world intelligible by resolving the contradictions of life.” Myths are slippery and reveal themselves partially, a little at a time. I enjoy that aspect and maybe the viewer will too.
If this exhibition had one underlying conversation or tension, what would it be?
My paintings respond more naturally to our formulation of self, the atemporal landscape we find ourselves in, and the myth making that constructs our personhood. To me this often incongruent, nonlinear, and palimpsest like human quality speaks to the multifaceted nature of existence for an individual. We are a happening put in motion by all these disparate elements, much like my paintings suggest.
