Over a year and still floating

It has been over a year since I have painted anything I have been happy with. I am playing with the idea of a single image. These paintings are from a moment in my apartment when the afternoon light is just magic. I want to see how much I can get out of a single memory, how much there is....is there one painting, 10 paintings? I am just starting this endeavour but I can say that Susan Lichtman has been a huge inspiration to me as of the late. Her light and depth is mesmerizing.

The first two are 18" x 24" and the last one s are postcard size.

this longing

self portrait: this longing 30"x 36"

self portrait: the little death 9"x 12"


self portrait: the little death 24"x 24"

The Little Death

Although I don't have any images to account for this new idea, I can try to explain through words. The notion of translating my experience as a human onto the picture plane is where my work has been directed for the last year. Utilizing the self portrait is the most effective way to explain these events and the energies that arise during the painting process. I want to take the idea of unraveling that experience, but break it apart into specific moments, rather than summing up an event into one image. I video taped myself during a specific experience (the little death), black and white, then took stills from that tape and am making paintings from those images. I have never worked from photographs before, and it's a very strange unknown land. Keeping the immediacy of a "moment in time" is proving difficult to translate as an alive painting that is changing and not static.

I am also using a very specific limited palette in hopes to recreate the simplicity that a black and white image holds. Wish me luck!

self portrait: standing still 23"x 40"

Window

self portrait: window 16"x 20"


I have been trying to make my art more approachable and inviting. While in front of the canvas there are moods and feelings that arise that are consciously and subconsciously translated to the picture plane.
For some reason, most of these emotions have been dealing with doubt, anxiety, and frustration- both with the painting process and in my own life. These issues need to be addressed, no doubt, but I have been neglecting the pleasurable side of painting (and in my own life).
These last two paintings, August Weekend and Window, are more intimate, personal (less abrasive), and hopefully more approachable.

August Weekend

self portrait: august weekend 16"x 20"


This is my latest painting. I am trying to work more with the idea of a concrete experience, rather than just the experience of painting in front of the canvas. This is a specific experience from the past that I am trying to recreate, in addition to incorporating the energies that arise during the painting process.