Saturday, October 31, 2009

Artist Statement In Progress

What: A series of paintings on the theme of emotional fragility.
An obsession pertaining to the tragic when it comes to love. Memories set into the sand in hopes that the sea of time will wash them away. Fragments of the turbulent time of letting go of a love that burned so brightly but was cut short. Hopes and dreams mourned. Remembrance and reverie of happy times, the guilt of the path not taken, brutal attacks on self-image/concept. A glimmer of redemption in the knowledge that everything happens for a reason.
Who: Figures from: life, imagined, photographed, magazine ads, and invented.
Poses used to re-enact the memories. Found images that gave shape to ideas slowly congealing in the darkness.
When: Over the past year, life changes have precipitated self-reflection and introspection.
Solitude brings the inner voice to the forefront.
Where: The figures are interwoven into the flat or shallow space of the picture plane.
The scene in which the figures exist are imagined and remembered: they do not really exist, they are ghosts. They do not live and breathe so they are in a shallow space.
Why: I was compelled to create these works for two reasons: a) therapeutic and cathartic to tell the story of the loss of a great love and b) intrigued by the play of positive and negative forms created by overlapping lines.
My intention was to release these memories to ease the pain but found that the theme is timeless and universal.
How: Charcoal contour lines are combined with patches of oil colour applied with a brush and palette knife.

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