“I don’t think artists have particularly bright ideas…” [What do they have?] “I guess theirtalent of painting things…” Willem de Kooning
A harsh critique. Probably true.
The new work visualizes dialogues of invented pictorial languages as imaginary artifacts of human interactions with some unseen interdimensional intelligence or ancient lost civilization.
Inspired by the idea of the monolith in Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the paintings explore moments of human awareness in which some new attribute or insight or sudden realization emerges from the morass of one’s racing thoughts and dreams or prior knowledge and understanding. The paintings function as couriers of those moments, and attempt to locate them in some time or place or some state of mind.
While precise translations of the work remain open ended, I hope to relay something of the sensation one experiences when encountering some sudden discovery or new idea for the very first time.
Below are some works from 2023-present:
The Recognition of Self, 18"x24", acrylic, oil, charcoal, oil stick on panel, 2023
The Birth of Reason, 36"x 36", acrylic, oil, charcoal, oil stick, on canvas, 2023.
The Advent of Logic , 36"x 36", acrylic, oil, pigment, on canvas, 2023.
The Ratio of Logic and Reason, 36"x 36", acrylic, oil, charcoal, on canvas, 2023
The Formation of Ideas, 36"x 36", acrylic, oil, pigment, oil stick, on canvas, 2023
The Discovery of Time, 36"x36", acrylic, oil, charcoal, gold, on canvas, 2023
The Organization of Predictable Events, 36"x36", acrylic, oil, charcol, on canvas, 2023
The Approaching Dawn of Weapons and Tools, 36"x36", acrylic, oil, gold, charcoal on canvas, 2023
The First Use of Hammer and Tongs, 36" x 36", acrylic, oil, pigment, charcoal on canvas, 2023
The Sudden Recognition of Missing Time, 36" x 36", acrylic, oil, dry pigment, on canvas, 2023
The Reification of Gravity and Inertia, 36" x 36", acrylic, oil, charcoal, pigment, on canvas, 2023
The Expanding Awareness of Alternate Dimensions, 36"x 36", oil, acrylic, charcoal, dry pigment, on canvas, 2023
The Interaction of Wakefulness and Dreams, 36" x 36", oil, acrylic, gold leaf, charcoal, dry pigment, on canvas, 2023-4.
The Selection and Use of Appropriate Tools, 36" x 36", oil, acrylic, charcoal, pigment, on canvas, 2024
The Discovery of Magnets, 36" x 36", oil, acrylic, charcoal, dry pigment, encaustic, enamel, on canvas, 2024.
The Generalization of Common Beliefs, 36"x36", acrylic, oil, silver leaf, charcoal on canvas, 2024
The Summarization of The Theory of Everything, 36"x36", acrylic, oil on canvas, 2024
The Surprising Organization of Unexplainable Events, 36" x 36", acrylic, oil, gold leaf, on canvas, 2024
The Enlistment and Use of Lost Technology , 36" x 36", acrylic, oil, gold leaf, pencil, on canvas, 2024
The Alignment of Atoms and Introduction of Steel, 36"x36", acrylic, oil, pigment, charcoal, silver leaf, on canvas, 2024
The Forge of Language, 36"x36", acrylic, oil, pigment, charcoal, gold leaf, on canvas, 2024
The Vibration of Substance and Precision of Order, 36"x36", acrylic, oil on canvas, 2024.
The Retrieval of Association and Memory, 36" x 36", acrylic, oil, charcoal on canvas, 2024 .
The Triumph of Geometry and The Location of Stars, 36" x 36", acrylic, oil, charcoal, gold leaf on canvas, 2024
Encountering the Duality of Electrons and Matter, 36"x 36", acrylic, oil, pigment, charcoal on canvas, 2024